Yellow Paint
by TahitianTreat
Summary: Van Gogh used to eat Yellow Paint to make him happy. Alison Dilaurentis jumps off of bridges, and Emily Fields jumps after her. We're all living in a state of tolerance, moving around our everyday lives searching for happiness. We all laughed at Van Gogh, but our we all that different? Emison Fic. Please check it out. Slow burn. Horrible description. Story is much better!
1. Chapter 1

**Okay guys, this is a new story. It's just something that I had to do to help me keep going with my other story, this was serving as a distraction. But rest assured Alison Dilaurentis must die is still in progress and I'm updating soon. But please give this a chance, I promise...well not promise but I think it's good and I hope you like it. Please review and tell me what you think.**

 **Yellow Paint**

 **Episode 1: You're not Jack and I'm not Rose.**

We're all going at some point in time.

This isn't a notion that Emily Fields lived by, even though she couldn't deny the truth in the words. We're all dying at some point in time, whether it be earlier in life or later...it's inevitable...death is inevitable.

No one is immortal. And the ones who spend millions of hours searching for immortality can tell you that as they stare at their aging empty hands.

But just because we all die at some point doesn't mean we have to take a preemptive strike.

We don't get to take a different path than the one that fate has designed for us. Who are we to stop short of our destiny, who are we to end the journey prematurely.

Just because our lifespans are short doesn't mean they are meaningless.

Every life has meaning.

Those are words that Emily Fields lived by. Every life has meaning, including the ones ended prematurely. Especially those lives. They drive us to become who we are destined to be. They serve as a warning of what we should and should not do. They serve as reminders of what could happen if we let fear, hurt, and anger drive our conscious behavior.

These are things that Emily Fields believed. No matter how much life sucked. And trust her to know that life sucked! You never give up. Things will get better for those who work it.

Things will get better. Those were the exact same words Emily repeated to herself over and over as she walked down the back road of an abandoned highway, in a town where she only knew two people, both of which were her mom and dad.

Things will get better. Those are words she needed to hear more than anything right now, especially after moving from a big state like Texas to a small town in Pennsylvania. After having your entire world turned upside down in a matter of a week, something that Emily would have never guessed would have ever happen to her family. Her perfect little family. They were perfect. Well they used to be. They used to be until secrets forced themselves out of the dark in the shape of an unborn child and a heartbroken family to find out through a letter intended for the man of the house. Secrets of infidelity, betrayal, lust for a woman that did not bare the name carried by his wife. Secrets of youth, the mistress being only three years older than Emily herself. Secrets of running away to start a family of their own, only to be struck down when found out about by the General of their unit. Secrets that shamed her family and forced them to relocate in a small town, under the disguise of official military business, to cover the scandal.

Yes, those secrets that keeps her parents up until 3:00am, yelling and screaming until their voices turn hoarse and they are no longer able to use their words, just hateful stares and regrets as they move to sleep on opposite sides of the room.

Secrets that have now shaped her life for the worst. But despite all she continues to grow an optimism inside of her that things will get better. I mean they have to don't they?

But nothing warranted the belief that nothing is to unbearable to live through until she saw her standing on that bridge.

Her blonde hair blowing back in the wind as she looks down at the dark water below, leaning against the beam so casually you'd think she was strapped to it to help prevent her from falling.

She was so high up. High enough to make Emily's stomach drop at the anticipated fall. But the young lady stood as if this did not scare her, as if nothing did. Not even falling to her death. And that alone made Emily question the girl's sanity.

Her long blonde hair disheveled and flowing down to the middle of her back. She wore a white night gown that stopped at her mid thigh. And she hummed a tune so quietly that Emily had to strain her ears to hear its melody.

If Emily had not stubbed her toe along the path she had taken to get to this bridge, she would have thought she was still asleep in dreamland, and this blonde haired girl would have been a figment of her imagination.

But she wasn't. And this was real. This girl was actually standing on this bridge plotting her own demise.

The wind began to pick up but the blonde girl did not sway. She continue to stand on that bridge looking down, and humming that tune.

One that Emily would never forget.

And then the blonde begin pacing back and forth on the beam. And Emily's heart clutched in fear at the thought of her misplacing her footing.

Emily begins to wonder would she be considered an accessory to the suicide if she didn't step in and try to help. If she watched her fall. But the hell with being an accessory, Emily knew she wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing she let this young poor girl fall to her death. She would only have reoccurring nightmares of her body floating in the water. So for the sake of her sanity and others she ought to intervene before things get out of hand.

"Hey..." Emily starts to say in a low raspy voice. But it's so low that the wind carries it away and out of earshot of the blonde girl. Emily notices this when the blonde fails to acknowledge her. So she begins to cautiously move forward, praying not to startle the girl off the ledge, its only then as moves closer that recognizes the tune the young lady carries.

 _"Have you ever looked fear in the face, and said I just don't care?" The blonde sings in a low voice as she walks along the beam with her head tilted back, hair blowing in the breeze._

 _"And it's only half past the point of no return...the tip of the iceberg...the sun before the burn...thunder before the lightening...the breath before the phrase...have you ever felt this way?" The blonde finishes in a low harmony._

"Yes...I have." Emily speaks up louder this time, startling the young blonde who quickly turns her head to see who interrupted her. "I'm sure we all have at some point in our lives." Emily says frowning in thought.

The blonde girl is shocked to see Emily on this abandoned bridge with her. In all the years that she's frequented this place, she's never come across a fellow night wanderer like herself. Especially someone young and not whacked-out by drugs or homeless like most night walkers in this city. Unsure of what to make of this stranger in front of her, the blonde just responds by giving Emily an uncaring look.

Emily's breath hitches as she gets a full view of the blonde in front of her. The blonde standing in front of her is considerable the most beautiful girl Emily had ever seen. From her beautiful blue eyes to her pouty full lips. And Emily was used to being surrounded by beautiful women, she's had her fair share of ladies back in Texas...this adding to the list of other things that caused a strained home life. Her parents always fighting about her morals, rather or not it was right or wrong for her to love women, seeing as it was against the word of the bible. Her mom taking the stance that it's her dads fault for not showing her a strong male role model, and her dad denying the accusations, then retaliating those hurtful words by staying out later with his mistress. But as the time moved on and Emily grew tired, she learned how to except herself and her home life circumstances, turning something so hurtful to witness, that caused lonely nights of cuddling into a corner consumed by tears, into a cold shoulder and an uncaring attitude towards the situation. She learned to ignore it and push through, and soon being gay wasn't an issue for her. Her mother loosened her grip and begin to except her, and her father who really didn't care one way or another just left the situation alone. Which Emily was grateful for. So she still had other things on her plate...but in the end she accomplished a difficult task, making her load one less item heavy. And if she could fight her demons, she knew nothing was impossible. So the only thing that troubles Emily, is what could possibly cause distress to this goddess of a woman and that pained look in her eyes. The light was completely gone from them, the only thing they held was the reflection of what she was looking at. This caused Emily's heart to clinch in sympathy as she looked upon the broken creature in front of her.

"You know it's really dangerous to stand up there...especially without any shoes on...you could get splinters or something." Emily says lamely, in an attempt to get the blonde haired girl to react.

The blonde just turns to look away from Emily choosing to ignore her, hoping she'd take the hint and go away. But Emily was more determined then ever to get her attention now. The last thing she wanted was for the blonde to jump and the only words she would have spoken to her would have been a lame joke about splinters.

"I know for me personally heights give me the heebie-geebies. I'm sure you could enjoy the view of the lake from a view less high up." Emily says in a cautious tone.

"Are you afraid I'm going to fall?" The blonde finally responds without turning to face Emily.

Emily breaths a sigh of relief when she hears the soft voice float through the air. It's brings her some sort of comfort to know she got the blonde to talk. "Well yeah...aren't you?"

"There are much more scarier things then falling into water." The blonde says with a forced smirk on her face that's hidden from view of Emily.

Emily ponders her words in agreeance by nodding her head, even though the blonde couldn't see her. "True." She speaks up. "But for me I'm not much of a swimmer, so it'll suck when I have to jump in the lake after you."

The blonde shakes her head at her statement. "This isn't titanic, you don't have to jump after me. This won't be some epic happy ending...if you could call it that...if I go overboard that's the end of me, and you'll be dumber then Jack if you join a complete stranger." The blonde rationalizes.

"Well it may not have been a happy ending but if I've learned one thing from that movie, nothing is worth ending your life, not even in the most miserable situations, even Rose figured that out." Emily reasons back.

This causes the blonde to scoff. "Rose's life is a walk in the park compared to mine. If she had to walk in my shoes for a day she wouldn't have hesitated to go over that cliff." She says turning to face Emily now. "And trust me, we all know Jack wouldn't have went after her if she did." She says calling Emily's bluff.

Emily hesitates to respond. She didn't think the blonde would be serious in considering jumping off that bridge but based on what she was saying, she might be. And that thought alone terrified Emily. Because what if she did go over, would Emily really go after her, would she really risk everything to jump in after this stranger? And a better question would be, what happened to this blonde haired beauty to make her think this was the only way out?

That's when Emily notices the slight bruise on the blondes shoulder. It looked similar to a hand print but from this distance Emily couldn't tell, but just the sight of it caused a queasy feeling in her stomach.

"You're right. Jack wouldn't have went over after her." Emily says, cautiously walking closer towards the blonde. "It was all talk...but he also knew Rose wouldn't have jumped either so really if you think about it, they both were bluffing." Emily says with her own smirk.

This causes the blonde to let out a dark laugh. "You don't know me. But if you did, you'd know I never bluff." She says giving Emily a dark look.

That look alone sent a chilling shiver down Emily's spine, and she forcefully swallows the lump building up in her throat. "You're right, I don't know you." Is all Emily can say before silence envelopes them.

The blonde decides that she doesn't want to speak anymore, so they fall into a heavy silence. The blonde now choosing to ignore Emily's presence again. She takes a moment to appreciate the peace and quiet, like she was doing before this brunette girl came and interrupted her. She hopes her silence is a hint for Emily to leave now, but she also knows there's no chance and hell that this girl is leaving this bridge unless she goes over or comes down.

Emily chooses this silent moment to release some stress. She reaches in her pocket and pulls out a package of cigarettes, she takes one out of the package placing it in her mouth, while she searches her other pockets for a lighter. She lets out a huff when she pulls out a lighter with barely enough fluid to light the cigarette. She makes a mental note to make a pit stop at that 24 hour mart she walked passed on the way here. She looks up at the lonely blonde resting against the beam quietly. "Not to interrupt your little moment, but you wouldn't happen to have a lighter on you would you?" She jokes slightly with a serious undertone. The blonde just stares at her with a confused frown before she shakes her head no. Emily nods her head in acknowledgement before she shakes the lighter and uses the rest of its fluid to light her cigarette. She lets out a deep breath as she inhales the nicotine, letting it marinate in her lungs a bit before she exhales a puff of smoke. "I figured you wouldn't mind, since your not a big pro life person anyways." Emily speaks in the air, not really expecting to get a response from her as she slowly rests her elbows against the ledge of the bridge, taking the cigarette in her hand and puffing it once more. "So I guess before you jump can I at least know your name? So I won't have to search for a nameless article tomorrow." Emily says with a shrug as she lets out another puff of smoke.

The blonde just stares at her with a growing smile on her face. "You're scared of me falling to my doom but you smoke cigarettes? I guess you're going not as pro life as I thought either." She teases, tossing Emily's statement back at her.

Emily just gives another shrug. "There's much more scarier things to die from remember." She says putting out the mostly finished cigarette on the bridge. "It's a bad habit that I'm trying to break." She says uncaringly. "I'm Emily by the way." Emily says hoping that if she gives a name she'd get one in return.

The blonde just smirks at her and shakes her head, turning to face the lake down below again. She understands what this Emily girl is trying to do, but she doesn't really want to give up her name just yet, just in case Emily tries to find her later on with the intent on informing her parents or anyone else for that matter of where they met.

"You have an amazing singing voice." Emily says randomly, causing the blonde to stumble in her thoughts.

The blonde blushes a deep red as she turns to look at Emily. She studies her face for a moment before she concludes that there's nothing but sincerity in her words. She blushes an even more impossible darker shade of red before turning to look down at her hands in her lap, fidgeting with her fingers. "Uh...thank you. That was kind of you to say."

Now it's Emily's turn to study her and she notices the red tint on her cheeks. She frowns in confusion before a smile envelopes her face. "Surely you've heard that before." She teases slightly.

"I don't really like to sing for an audience." The blonde says with an uncaring shrug. "You're actually the first to ever hear me sing." She says shyly looking over at Emily.

Emily just offers her a soft smile. "Well if this is the final time that you'll ever do it again then I'm honored to be your first and only." Emily says then blushes a deep red at her statement. "I mean...to hear you sing. I'm honored to be the first to hear you sing." She corrects quickly causing the blonde to laugh.

The blonde shakes her head as she looks at Emily in amusement. "Why are you here? I'm sure you're not some super hero who walks bridges at night talking people down from ledges." She jokes. Before plopping down on the ledge, her feet dangling above the open water freely. The action startles Emily, but she makes no show of it besides clenching and unclenching of her fists in fear.

"Nope. I guess I needed a break from reality too." Emily says. The thought of her family ringing in her head, makes her crave another cigarette. She places a hand over the pocket in her jacket but thinks wiser of it before placing her hand back against the ledge. "What about you, what brings you here?" Emily asks cautiously.

Silence surrounds them for a beat. And Emily almost doesn't expect her to respond until she hears the soft voice float from her mouth.

"I'm sick of waking up in darkness, when the sky is always painted blue." The blonde says dejectedly, avoiding eye contact with Emily.

"Well no offense miss Rose..." Emily starts in a sarcastic tone, emphasizing the name Rose pointing out the failure of not knowing her real name. "But you are standing on a bridge in the middle of the night...there wouldn't be any light in the sky, besides the stars and airplanes." Emily reasons.

"There's a method to my madness, it's clear that you don't have a clue." The blonde mutters in a lower voice.

"Well clue me in. Why are we still sitting here on this bridge. Why aren't we walking away. What's so dark that you can't see a clearer sky." Emily asks in a desperately concerned voice. She has a feeling the blonde may not jump but still, there's an off chance that she will and Emily definitely feels that there's still a chance of talking her down.

The blonde just gives her a wistful smile. "There are things worth knowing and some things that are not. Like the illusion that there's no such thing as monsters is wrong. Our parents teach us about monsters as a scare tactic to keep us in line. They're just ghost stories, something that doesn't really exist. But that's the thing, they exist and they haunt our very existence. But only a select few know that. The unlucky few." The blonde states before turning to face Emily with a serious look on her face. "And once you know that, you can't un-know it, because it follows you, it lurks in the shadows and hides in your darkest places. It waits for you to let your guard down before it presents itself in the form of comfort. And it continues to follow, causing a paranoia within you until you view everyone as a threat and you seclude yourself until your alone and unsure of anything. And soon you find yourself sitting on the ledge of an abandoned bridge waiting...unsure of what you're waiting on." She says looking away from Emily. She feels much more vulnerable now because of the extent of the words she revealed but felt some form of relief as the words that float around her head spills out into riddles. Her secret is safe but her load is lighter.

Emily on the other hand just frowns in confusion. She understood the words but remains unclear of its implications. But one thing that does remain certain is that the mystery blonde sits here on this ledge because her darkness is now surrounding her and she has nowhere else to go.

"I have an unborn sister out there somewhere. And it's not from my mom. My dad..." Emily starts taking a deep breath before continuing. "He's been having an affair for years with another woman in his unit, and it blew up so bad that we were forced to move from my hometown. And that's how I ended up here. I came out around the same time, so on top of my mom losing her husband to a girl half her age, she also lost her daughter to what she called the demons of our generation. Our family is falling apart and the only thing that holds us together...well I don't know what we are hanging on too...honestly I've just been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Like any minute I'll come home to an empty house, shattered pictures, and a broken parent...which one? I'm unsure of." Emily says. The subject causing her great discomfort. She finally surrenders to her nasty habit and reaches into her pocket, grabbing another cigarette. She takes the lighter out of her pocket looking at its empty contents with a sunken feeling in her chest. The crave she has for the nicotine causes her great pain...or pretend pain, she just needed to harness her anger towards one object and the stupid lighter in her hand seemed to do the trick. She takes a deep breath to calm her nerves before angrily tossing the lighter into the lake. She runs a hand through her hair to fight her frustration before she exhales loudly.

The blonde just stares at her with a sympathetic look before it turns blank. "Why are you telling me this?" She asks confused.

Emily just stares at her twitching hands as she ponders the question. She offers a shrug in substitute of an answer before giving her a real one. "I don't know. It...it feels good to tell somebody..." She trails off with a sigh before she looks the blonde in the eye. "I guess I just thought that if I told you then you wouldn't feel so alone...maybe you'd know that you're not the only one who's sick of waking up in darkness, even though we prefer to hide in the night." Emily offers.

Alone. That's a word that the blonde has known to be associated with negative notations, but she's often looked to it for comfort. She remembers the times that she's craved the feeling of disappearing from the world and everyone around her. People often think that being alone is...well lonely. But she knows the true meaning of being alone...and the comfort that it provides. But the type of alone that Emily refers to is something entirely different. Something that she knows has caused her a great deal of pain...but now after hearing Emily's words it causes her a great form of relief to know that she doesn't stand alone in the dark...just alone in her situation.

"My name is Lauren." The blonde says. Her words ranging true, even if they hold a form of deceit to them.

Emily looks up in surprise at hearing her name for the first time. She studies the blondes face with uncertainty. The blonde doesn't look like a Lauren but then again she doesn't know if she even looks like an Emily. She fears that the blonde is just giving her a name for the sake of it, but Emily concludes that her thoughts aren't based on concrete evidence so she'll leave it alone.

"Damn...I was hoping from now on I could of called you Rose." Emily jokes to ease the mood, not wanting to make a big deal out of learning the blondes true identity.

Lauren just smiles and shakes her head. This Emily girl was nothing if not persistent and normally this would bother her, but she some how finds it enduring to have her by her side, especially on this darkest night.

"Can I tell you another secret?" Emily asks.

Lauren turns to face her with a concerned look in her eyes. "Anything." She breaths out.

"I'm deathly afraid of heights. And you being up there is really fucking with my nerves." Emily admits with a shrug.

And Lauren gets it. She gets what Emily is trying to do. She talked her down, she opened up to her and she gave her a sign that she could trust her. Now she's testing her, seeing if she really will step away from the ledge or if she really will end it all right now. Normally Lauren is not one to back down...once she has something in her head she commits. And she definitely wasn't ready to head back into reality yet, but she also didn't want to cause this Emily girl anymore distress with the illusion of a death that was never to come in the first place. So Lauren digresses and stands up along the ledge.

This causes Emily's heart to drop in the pit of her stomach. She fears she's pushed the blonde to far and that she might just actually jump in retaliation, but when Lauren turns to face her, offering her a hand, she lets out a deep breath of relief and takes it, attempting to help her down.

In the process Lauren loses her footing and slips from the ledge, but luckily for her Emily was there to catch her and she lands in her arms, unfortunately Emily also loses her balance and falls back against the concrete where she smacks her head hard against the ground. The impact causing her to slowly lose consciousness.

"Shit!" She hears Lauren shout as she fights to keep her eyes open. "I am so sorry Emily...can you hear me...Emily!" She hears her scream as she shakes her shoulders.

Emily just blinks her eyes open and shut as she attempts to remain conscious, but even she knows she's fighting the inevitable. "Can I tell you one more secret?" She asks, a lazy smile forms on her face, before she stops fighting it and closes her eyes.

"Yes! Anything!" A distraught Lauren says as she tries in vain to keep Emily awake.

"You're not so different from Rose." Emily slurs out.

Lauren just frowns in confusion at her words. "What?"

"You wouldn't have jumped...but I..." Emily starts but trails off as she falls into slumber. "I would have went after you..." And with those final words Emily slips unconscious.

Lauren just stares in confusion at Emily's words. The truth in her post slumber breath causes her heart to clench at the gesture. But she had bigger concerns than someone caring enough to go over a bridge for her, even if they just met. And that was what the hell was she supposed to do with Emily...or how was she supposed to get her home?


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay so I owe you guys the sun in the moon for not killing me for not posting this on Wednesday like promised. My deal has not fallin through, I will post every Sunday and Wednesday and earlier if I can, but this week just got away from me because it's the first week of school, things were kind of hectic. But on another note, this chapter is not as much Emison as it is more background for Emily's character and the friends that she meets. BUT I PROMISE AFTER THIS IT'S EMISON ALL THE TIME! Just read and review and tell me what you think. Thank you.**

 **Yellow Paint**

 **Episode 2: Have we met before?**

 _"Please don't jump!" Emily says as she reaches for the blonde._

 _"We all have to go at some point." She states with a sinister smirk before spreading her arms and falling backwards off the bridge._

 _"Nooo!" Emily yells as she leaps forward attempting to stop her._

Emily jumps awake in her bed as if something was strapping her in, and then finally releasing her...springing her forward. She winces, the action of lifting up so fast causing her to become dizzy. So she lies back down on her pillow, and takes a deep breath before she tries it again, this time much slower. And what she sees causes nothing but confusion to resonate within her. She takes in all of her surroundings, only to realize that she's back in her bedroom, stripped down to her PJ's, the clothes she wore on her midnight outing nowhere to be found.

She frowns in confusion at this because not long ago she could have sworn she was standing on a bridge with a girl, who was contemplating suicide, and now she's here in her bed as if that didn't happen. Did it happen? Yes it had to, or else she wouldn't have this big lump forming on the back of her head. She winces when she touches it, and quickly looks at her hand to inspect the damage, making sure there was no blood. She lets out a sigh of relief when she doesn't see any.

"I understand that back in Texas we let you bring home girls, but at least you were discrete. We had an entire acre between our house and the neighbors...this time we don't." She hears her father say as he stands in the doorway with his arm crossed.

They do a small stare off, before Wayne says anything else. Even though he has a point to get across, he makes sure that he speaks with caution. He understands that he's the parent but he also knows that there's a strain on his relationship with daughter.

Wayne then lets out a sigh, before he finally begins again. "Just try not to bring home so many girls, I don't want our new neighbors to think we let our daughter do whatever she wants. And besides, this is a small town, I don't want you gaining a reputation among your classmates or towns people." He concludes.

Emily was startled, not just from what he was saying, but to hear him say anything to her in general. The last time they talked was before the drive here, when she told him she hated his guts. After that they chose to just live in the house together making that the extent of their relationship. At first it was something that bothered her, now she barely feels anything at all.

"I'm not sure what your talking about. What does what I did back in Texas have to do with being here?" Emily asks after a moment of silence, finally letting his words register with her. Confused as to why he's bringing up her past ways in Texas. Something that also caused tension within the household.

Wayne lets out a deep breath as he shakes his head at her. "Please don't pretend to be the fool Emily. I saw the girl bringing you in the house around four o'clock...which is way past your curfew...but because I don't want to start off your first day of school on a bad note, I'll just leave it as a warning." He says a little sternly.

To which Emily only gives him an unimpressed look.

Now he wants to choose to parent her? That's such bullshit. Emily just shakes her head and stands from her bed, choosing to ignore him, hoping that after her silence he would walk away. She looks at the clock, realizing that she only had thirty minutes before she had to be at her new school. Luckily for her she only lived ten minutes away.

Wayne waits for her to acknowledge him, but when he doesn't get even so much as another glance he clears his throat and begins speaking again. "You're mom arranged for you to start walking with the next door neighbor to school in the mornings, her name is Aria Montgomery. But today she wants me to take you to school, help you get settled in." He says stuffing his hands in his pocket awkwardly.

Emily, who is half way dressed, finally turns to look at him with confusion written all over her face. "I'm a big girl, I'm sure I can find my own classes."

Wayne chuckles and nods his head. "I know. I said the same thing. But she thinks it's an easy way for me to meet your principal, since we're new to the town and all." He concludes with a shrug.

Emily again just frowns. Why does HE have to be the one to do it. "Why can't mom do it?" She voices out loud.

Wayne then gives a frown of his own. "She's down at the Police station right now inquiring about a job. She doesn't know when she'll be back so she asked me to do it, since I don't have to be at my post until later on this afternoon." He explains.

Emily has to fight every bone in her body not to protest him. She lets out a deep breath. "Fine. Can I at least finish getting dressed by myself...well unless you want to dress me too." She asks with a sarcastic smirk.

Wayne, who looks taken aback by her sudden mood swing, just steps back from the doorway. He nods his head before turning on his heel only to have the door slammed shut right behind him. He lets out a sigh at the thoughts of how much Emily has change. He bites his lip to stop the tears from falling at the thought of all that anger standing behind that door being his fault, but he has no time for self pity, he has to go and get ready to drop Emily off to school.

Emily quickly gets dressed, going through her morning routine. After she brushes her hair, she quickly slips on her leather jacket and combat boots. Rosewood is a lot colder than Texas, and she quickly found that out last night standing on that bridge.

When she gets downstairs her dad is standing by the door with a brown paper bag in his hand. Him being a military man, timeliness is next to godliness. She knows the saying is cleanliness but cleanliness is more of her moms thing. The closer she gets to him the more her eyebrows dig down in confusion. "What's that?" She asks motioning towards the bag in his hand.

"I packed you a lunch. Uh your favorite. PB&J with the crust off." He says with a smile, holding the bag out for her.

Emily just rolls her eyes. "I haven't eaten a PB&J since I was in elementary." She says walking past him towards the door. "Maybe you would have known that if you didn't spend all your nights with that girl." She mutters to herself as she swings the door open.

Wayne just frowns in anger. "Emily!" He states sternly ready to rip her a new one for her rudeness.

"What?!" Emily asks as she spins around to face him with indifference.

He stares at her for a moment. Not sure what to say or do at this point. He knows it's his fault that she's like this, but at the same time he's her father, she should show him some respect. He sighs in defeat, dropping the brown paper bag on the floor. "What do you want from me?" He asks desperately.

Emily frowns in confusion before shaking her head. "Nothing." She says turning to face away from him. "Absolutely nothing." She mutters before jetting to her dads hummer truck.

Wayne just stares after her longingly before he picks up the bag he dropped and makes his way out the door.

The car ride to school was silent. The only thing that could be heard was the humming of the car as it drove down the road, and Wayne's low singing to classic rock songs on the radio. Something that if Emily admitted to herself she missed dearly. It was something she grew fond of as a kid, something she loved about her dad. How nervous he was to sing out loud but when he did he had a beautiful singing voice and even though she loved his singing voice she loved his reserved side even more. But those are things that Emily would never admit out loud. She hasn't been in this close of a proximity to her dad in over a year.

Once the car pulls to a stop she quickly jump out, not waisting time. She attempts to speed walk to the door hoping to leave Wayne behind but he's quickly right by her side holding her forgotten backpack for her. "Emmy we should walk in together. If we're going to find the front office, two heads are better than one." Wayne reasons.

"It's Emily. And you could just go by yourself, just look for the big sign that says 'office'." Emily points out, refraining from rolling her eyes at her dad.

"What about your school schedule, you need that don't you?" He points out again, this time smiling at his quick thinking.

At his words Emily finally slows down. She lets out a sigh as she feels her dad step beside her and enter the building with her. Upon crossing the threshold, she becomes the center of attention as eyes turn to stare at the 'new' girl. She lets out a sigh, and rolls her eyes because she knows this will be happening for the next few days. Yippie!

Wayne oblivious to the stares looks around to see if he could spot the office, when he doesn't see it, he stops a student and asks for direction. When the student points around the corner Wayne gives her a small smile of appreciation and a genuine 'thank you.'

"You like them younger and younger don't you pops." Emily says with a cruel smirk.

Wayne jaw hardens at her words as he shoots her a warning look. "Lets not do this here." He says trying to push his anger aside.

Emily just looks away from him, ignoring his hurtful glare. Luckily for her they were soon standing in front of the office door. Wayne stepped in front of her to open the door, and Emily moved in without any persuasion. She stuffs her hands inside her front jean pockets as she looks around the bland office space. When she looks over to the front desk she makes eye contact at he secretary who's staring at her curiously.

When Wayne notices the secretary waiting on them, he steps forward with a pleasant smile. "Hi. My name is Wayne Fields and this is my daughter Emily. She's new to the school." He says shaking her hand.

"Oh yes, Mr. Fields, I received your fax last week." The secretary says digging through some papers on her desk, before pulling out a file with my name on it. "We've already went ahead and created a schedule for her based on your recommendations" She hands Wayne a piece of paper with Emily's schedule listed on it. Wayne studies it for a moment before handing it to Emily.

Emily hesitantly takes the paper and examines it herself. A frown soon makes its way across her face. "I have swimming fourth period?" Emily looks up glaring at her dad. "I don't swim anymore Wayne, you know that." she says anger coming off of her in waves.

Wayne lets out a sigh. "You stopped swimming because of the things that were going on around the house. Now that we've moved, and are starting over, I thought maybe you could start practicing again." He says sheepishly. Most of his actions were stemmed from guilt of being the reason that Emily gave up on her passions. That's why he was more than happy to participate in the move; not just for a fresh start for him and his failing marriage but for his baby girl as well.

"Well it's not going to change. I don't want to swim any more and you can't make me. Change my schedule." Emily says stubbornly, holding out the paper for him to take.

Wayne lets out a sigh in defeat as he takes the paper in her hand.

"I hate to interrupt your conversation but all schedules are final for the first week of classes, unless it was a mistake on our part we cannot change your schedule. After this week if you still want to change your class, I will be happy to do so." The secretary says, giving Emily and apologetic smile.

Emily for her part doesn't except the silent apology. She's doing everything in her power not to rip her head off. She takes a deep breath before snatching the piece of paper back out of her dads hand.

Wayne sighs again before turning to look at the secretary. "Thank you. Uh should I help her find her first class?" He asks with a small chuckle, breaking the awkward tension that Emily created while also trying to get out of there as fast as possible.

The secretary smiles at him before shaking her head no. "That won't be necessary Mr. Fields, the Jr. student Body president has this hour free just to show new students around. She should be here in less than five minutes, she's always on time." The secretary brags.

Wayne gives her a head nod/bow. "Again thanks again." He says turning away from her to face Emily. "Uh I don't know if I'm able to pick you up today, but I will try. If

I can't make it then I will send you a text and I want you to walk home with that Aria Montgomery girl. Understood?" He instructs. His voice loving and apprehensive yet firm. He knows that if he doesn't put his foot down Emily would flee from the scene without getting a ride or a buddy to walk home with, just to despite him.

"I'm sure I'm able to find my own house Wayne." Emily says with an eye roll.

Wayne jaw hardens as his back straightens with authority. "Is that understood." He now commands instead of asking. A position he's used to taking with the soldiers that he trains to serve under him.

Emily has to physically stop her self from rolling her eyes again and storming out of the office. Since she was a little kid, she's always hated when he reverted to using Military tactics on her. It always made her feel small. Smaller than she already was compared to him. "Yes sir." She says through clenched teeth.

Wayne stance softens as he gives her a head nod. "Good." He leans forward to kiss her on the forehead but Emily quickly moves out of his reach. Wayne has to stop himself from flinching at her discomfort with him. So he forces a smile, which comes out more of a grimace. "Have a good day Emmy." He says moving past

her and out of the office.

Emily doesn't turn to watch him leave, she just waits to hear the door close shut before she addresses the Secretary. "So where is my navigational tool?" She asks casually. Emily can sense the awkwardness coming off of the secretary in waves because of what she just witnessed between Emily and her father. Emily normally wouldn't care to break the tension, but this is the schools secretary, Emily's sure she's going to be visiting this office a lot, why not leave an Okay impression.

"I prefer the term tour Guide." A tall petite brunette says entering the office, looking down at the paper in her hand. "Emily Fields is it?" She asks, even though she knows exactly who Emily is, if she's being truthful she was a little offended by the 'tool' comment Emily made.

"Yeah." Emily speaks up, causing Spencer to look up making eye contact with her. She shifts on her feet, slightly nervous from the scrutinizing look Spencer is giving her.

Spencer narrows her eyes slightly as she takes in Emily's appearance. Emily is dressed in what could be considered casual get-up: blue jeans, black ankle boots, a white t-shirt, a leather jacket, with a flannel shirt tied around her waist. She looked like your typical alternative chick. And she's sure to stick out like a sore thumb there, because a lot of people at Rosewood High wouldn't be caught dead in her clothing choice. Most people around town liked to dress to impress. Designer clothes was the go to option to help them complete the preppy or typical valley girl look, which was always the common choice of wardrobe for the high school students. Many of the parents were well established in their careers, so many students liked to wear clothes to represent their status.

Like Spencer Hastings, she was the spitting image of a Jr. senator, with her light pink button up shirt and her designer sweater to go on top, khaki pants and nice designer shoes to complete the look.

"Hello Emily, I'm Spencer Hastings. I'll be showing you around school today." Spencer says formally. "If you follow me, I'll take you to your first class." She says swinging the door open for Emily to follow her into the hall.

Emily nods her head, signaling for Spencer to lead the way. She can tell from Spencer's stiff conversational skills, that she was all business. In Emily's opinion, Spencer seemed a bit to young to be this serious. As Emily follows Spencer into the hall she shoves her schedule into her pockets, not bothering to pay attention to it. Just from catching a glimpse at Spencer's hand, she can see that her 'tour guide' already has a copy of her schedule. It's even color coordinated.

"Coincidentally, your locker is right across from mine." Spencer informs her as she navigates them through the hall. Slightly shoving people along the way. No one even bats and eye, they're used to Spencer's abrasive behavior. "Your first class is right across from mine, we can meet after when the bell rings and I'll show you to your second class as well."

"What, your not going to give me the grand tour of this school all in one go?" Emily asks. Most schools she's transferred to gives her an hour of their time before tossing her to the woods. Emily wasn't expecting anything differently.

Spencer just lets out a scoff. "Please Rosewood High is much to big for that. It'll take some time to process where you're going. Way more time than we have this morning." She says turning to face Emily as they stop in front of the lockers. "So this is your locker. My locker is right there." Spencer says pointing across the hall to her locker. "If you want to put your back pack in there, you better hurry we have about five minutes before our next class starts." Spencer says.

Emily gives her a curt nod before opening her locker and tossing her backpack inside. She grabs her binder and a pen. Emily then turns to look at Spencer giving her the green light to lead them to class.

Spencer gives her a small smile. Normally she doesn't like to get to know the new students on a personal level. Nine times out of ten after she shows them the ropes of the school, they choose not to hang out with the student council leader. Her vigorous schedule and afternoon programs makes her an unlikely companion to have. Not to mention she has sort of a dark humor, that most people can't get pass. But for some reason she finds Emily interesting. Her passive attitude can be seen as uncaring to most people, but to Spencer she senses there's something deeper than that. And she finds herself doing something she normally never does.

"So where are you from?" Spencer asks as she turns to lead Emily towards her classroom.

"Texas." Emily states simply.

"Oh, cool." Spencer says nodding her head along to an empty beat. "Do you have any family here?" Spencer prods again. For some reason she can't stop herself from asking questions, despite the standoffish attitude of Emily.

"No. It's just me, my mom, and dad." Emily States. She scratches the back of her neck. Her body itching to partake in her unhealthy habit. She hasn't had a hit since she was out with that Lauren girl last night. Not even a morning smoke. Her nerves will be giving her hell all day. She'll probably have to sneak out for a smoke later.

Spencer frowns in concentration at Emily's answer. "Woah you guys are a long way from Kansas." She jokes, trying to lighten the hard mood of Emily. "What made you guys move all the way here?" Spencer inquires.

"My dads in the army. Relocation." Is all Emily says. Which isn't far from the truth, she just left out the part of her dad banging a girl in his unit and getting them kicked out of the state. That's definitely more complicated to explain.

"Ohh so your an army brat? I guess that explains a lot." Spencer stares with a shrug.

Emily frowns in confusion. What could she have possible done already to give off the impression that she was an outsider. "Like what?" She asks.

"Your style of dress. It's unusual compared to Rosewood. It definitely shows many different backgrounds, like your cultured, kind of bad ass like a rocker chick." Spencer says bluntly, she catches onto the look Emily gives her and she quickly back peddles. "Sorry. I've been known not to have much filter. It's a curse and a gift." Spencer explains sheepishly.

Emily just offers her a small smile. "It's better than you lying to me." And Emily truly accepts the honesty from the girl. She could do without liars in her life, she's already got enough of those. As they fall into an comfortable silence, Emily takes this time to scan the crowd of the hallway. And Spencer was right, everyone is dressed in designer clothes and shoes. Even though this school is a public one the kids here dress like they're from a private school. They all the look the same too. Nothing unique about the bunch; pretty girls, handsome guys. Nose jobs, face lifts maybe. Just to all...look the same. Emily's eyes become bored with the group of people she surveys and just when she's about to look away a particular person catches her attention. She can only see her back and blonde hair, but the tingle that goes down her spin gives her a sense of Deja Vu. Emily frowns in concentration as she moves closer for the girl. But just as she's about to close in on her. The blonde girl shuts her locker and moves into the throng of people. Emily herself can't navigate through the crowd of students as well as he blonde girl does and soon she's out of sight and Emily stops her pursuit.

Fuck. 'Could that have been her?' 'Is it really a coincidence that this girl would go to the same school as her'? Emily thinks to herself as she hurriedly looks around the crowd.

"Is everything okay Emily?" Spencer asks, standing behind her. Emily just abruptly took off through the hall, shoving students out of the way as she went. Spencer couldn't get a good look at what she was after but whatever it was she didn't find it.

"Yeah." Emily says giving her a forced smile. "Just thought I saw something." She explains briefly.

"Anything I can help you with?" Spencer asks. She does know mostly everything that goes on in this school. Especially the Jr. Hallway.

Emily bites her lip in debate as to whether or not she should ask for Spencer's help. But she thinks wiser of it, she'd rather not have to explain about the girl on the bridge last night. Spencer would either think it was a dream or think Emily was off her meds. "Uh no...it's fine. Thanks anyways." Emily says politely.

"Okay well we better get back, we don't have that much time before the bell rings. We wouldn't want to be late." Spencer says as she leads Emily back to her classroom. Soon Spencer stops in front of a classroom door. "So this is your class." She says gesturing towards the door behind her. "Mines is right across the hall. I'll meet up with you again to walk you to your next class." Spencer says with a smile before moving to her first class of the day.

"Thanks." Emily offers before walking towards her own classroom. When she enters it just her and a few other students, so she assumes that they still have plenty of time before the first bell signals. She's guessing being on time isn't something that the students of Rosewood high finds cool enough to do. Emily looks around that semi-empty classroom and spots a seat vacant in the left hand corner by the window in the back. She quickly takes it before anyone can tell her differently.

Soon the entire class is filing into the classroom. The room buzzing with excitement from the latest gossip. Occasionally people would look back at her looking her up and down. Some with disgusted looks on their faces at her appearance, and others look intrigued.

Normally this wouldn't bother Emily. Shes never been one to care for others opinions. But she missed her morning smoke because of the interruption her dad, and the attention is causing Emily to fidget. Emily can just imagine how she looks in the eyes of her peers.

Emily debates whether or not to just flee the room. Maybe if she pretends to have stomach aches she could just lie down in the nurses office. Just as Emily was about to collect her belongings and head out she hears a voice to her right call for her attention.

"Hey. Your new here right?" The voice asks.

Emily turns to face the girl who asked her the question. She's a short petite brunette. She has big doll like eyes and a kind smile. She has sort of an innocence to her. It's recognizable on sight. Back in Texas, Emily would have wanted to defile this girl, take away her innocence just like hers was stripped away from her. But for some reason she couldn't bring herself to want to. The only girl that occupied her thoughts as of today was then blonde beauty who set along that abandoned bridge.

Since she woke up this morning, and her dad informed her that she in fact was brought home by the blonde, she's been lost in the thought of what happened after she dropped her off? Did she go back and off herself? Did she go home...what happened? But that would have to wait until later on that night. She planned on going back to that bridge. Hopefully she would run into her, because if she didn't she might assume the worst.

"Uh yeah." Emily says finally answering the question that was asked to her. The small brunette gives her a smile before offering her hand.

"Well nice to meet you, I'm Aria Montgomery." She offers in a friendly tone.

Aria Montgomery. Hmm why did that name sound so familiar to Emily. She frowns slightly before erasing it from her face. She didn't want to come off as unpleasant so Emily gives her a small smile before taking the hand offered to her. "Emily Fields." She introduces.

Arias eyes widen surprise. "Wait, no way." Aria partially exclaims. "You're my new neighbor, I'm supposed to walk to school with you in the mornings." She says smiling widely at Emily. "What are the odds that we'd share the same first period. I thought I'd have to search through this school for hours trying to find you." She adds with a giggle.

Well Emily guesses that's why the name sounded so familiar. And it was fairly coincidental that she found Aria so quickly. But in all honestly she never planned on searching for Aria. If the small brunette wouldn't have found her, Emily would of just walked home. But I guess Emily was pretty happy that she did, it saved her a lecture from her dad when she got home.

Emily gives her a tight smile as she nods her head in agreement. "Yeah that is odd." Emily adds curtly.

Just then the teacher walks in. He's medium height, maybe about 5'11, black curly hair, a boyish look on his face. Emily could tell that he was new to the teaching scene. He turned and smiled at the class as he set his brief case down next to his desk. "Good morning class." He says catching the rooms attention. "Before we start today, I need you all to take out your homework assignments and pass it forth." He instructs.

Emily doesn't bother to reach for anything, seeing as though this is her first day. As the young teacher walks around the class taking the papers from his students. Finally he looks up from the stack of papers in hand to spot Emily sitting in the back corner.

"Hi, you must be Emily Fields." He says catching her attention. "Welcome to Rosewood High, I'm Mr. Fitz." He introduces himself with a smile. Emily gives him a curt nod but that's about as much of a response she gives him.

Mr. Fitz frowns a bit at her standoffish attitude but doesn't dwell on it as he chalks it up to new kid jitters. "Uh...so today class, we have a new student." He announces as he moves towards the front of the class again. "So when we go over our homework please try to give intelligent answers, we don't want to scare her off on her first day." As he says this some of the students in the class laugh while others groan.

Aria gives Emily a reassuring smile as Emily sinks into her chair, tuning out the rest of his lecture.

When the bell rings Emily already has her belongings collected and springing out of her chair. As she moves with the crowd towards the door a hand on her arm stops her departure.

Mr. Fitz gives her a soft smile. "Emily, I noticed that you didn't say much during the discussion." He says with concern.

Emily just gives him a shrug. "It's my first day..." she explains casually.

Mr. Fitz chuckles as he takes a seat on the edge of his desk. "Yes. But I've seen the reading list of your old school. You read this book almost two months ago." He says with a sly smile.

Emily lets out a small breath as she looks away from him. Of course she read this book a while ago, most of the books on Mr. Fitz reading list she read her freshman year in high school. She knew with the way she was ahead in his class would be a breeze to pass. But she couldn't tell him that, he'd either become very offended or he'd try to assign her much harder books to read. With the stress going on in her life she really didn't need that.

Mr. Fitz frown deepens as he takes in Emily's quietness. He mistakes her silence for something else entirely. "Look Emily, I know being the new kid is never fun. And I have no clue as to why you and your family decided to move here in the middle of the semester, but I want you to know that you can come to me about anything." He says placing a hand on Emily's shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "My door is always open." He punctuates with a smile.

Emily slowly looks at the hand he placed on her shoulder before she gives him a forced smile. "Thank you Mr. Fitz." Emily says curtly before quickly fleeing the classroom, unbeknownst to her his eyes following her the entire time.

When she gets in the hallway, she lets out the breath she didn't realize was stuck in her lungs. For some reason the young teacher gave her a bad feeling, an uneasy one. Like his motives weren't all that pure as he made them out to be. Maybe it's because she just met him and there was a disconnect with trust between them. She didn't know, but until she figured it out she'd just have to keep her distance from him.

"There you are." Spencer says coming from her right. "I've been waiting for you, we're almost late for class." She says with a slight frown on her face. If that's one thing Spencer hated more than anything it was being late to class.

"Sorry. That Mr. Fitz guy made me stay after to talk to him." Emily says sheepishly. She can practically spot the frustration radiating off of Spencer. This girl really was uptight.

"Well did he give you a pass because we're going to be late." Spencer says again. She's trying not to let her compulsiveness show but the thought of being late is stressing her out. She lets out a frustrated growl as she runs her hands though her hair.

Emily lifts her eyebrow up in curiosity at Spencer's behavior. This girl was wigging out over nothing, like seriously losing her shit. "Uh Spencer..." Emily says trying to get Spencer's attention. She gently places her hand on her shoulder stopping Spencer from moving forward. "Are you okay?" She asks softly.

Spencer frowns in confusion at Emily's question. "Yeah. Why?" She asks. The look in Emily's eye made her halt in her anxiety about being late to class.

"I don't know, you kind of freaked out on me a second ago?" Emily says with a shrug as she continues to give Spencer an uneasy look.

Spencer gives Emily a sheepish look. "Sorry. I have this thing about being punctual. It always throws off my time when I'm late." She says. She tosses Emily a small reassuring smile. God she was already a freak of nature to everyone else around her, she didn't want to scare the new girl away to.

Emily just nods her head in understanding. "No big deal. Just tell your teacher you were late because you were showing the new girl to her class. Maybe you'll get a pass from detention." She says. She doesn't like to see anyone stress over her. Especially the girl showing her around.

Spencer lets out a sigh and nods her head. "Yeah, you're right sorry." She says as they move through the halls together towards the second class of the day. "I don't mean to come off as a control freak...I just have some control issues." Spencer explains lamely.

Emily just shrugs and offers Spencer a reassuring look. "No worries, we all have our crosses to bear."

"Okay, so your class is here, and mines is a little down the hall." Spencer explains as they stop in front of the classroom door to Emily's History class. "After this you have swimming, which is right next to my weightlifting class."

Emily cracks a smile at this. "You have a weight lifting class?"

Spencer gives a scoff. "Yeah apparently you can't pass high school with just a 4.0 in all course classes, you have to also prove you can jump a hurtle too." She adds with an eye roll.

"Well thanks again. I'll see you after this period." Emily says before walking into her class. Just as Spencer predicted, they were late to class, but Emily got a pass from the balled man standing up at the front of the class because she was the new girl. She could only hope that Spencer got one as well. And of course he went through the entire spill about her being the new kid, and Emily received similar looks as she did in Mr. Fitz classroom. But this time they didn't make her anxious, they annoyed her. She was already sick of this school and it was only the first day.

The time seemed to fly during this period, as the teacher went over the Han Dynasty and the rulers. Emily zoned out after the first five minutes. When the final bell rang, again Emily was the first out her seat as she stormed out of the classroom missing the confused looks from her fellow peers. When she met up with Spencer in the hall, and again Spencer led them to their next class period. Spencer's voice filled the silence with mindless chatter about the school, and Emily said nothing because she was dreading walking into the swim room.

She hadn't swim since before her parents marriage started falling apart. She couldn't see a point of going to swim practice or swim meets if she didn't have anyone in the stands to cheer her on. So she just stopped going one day. And when her mother asked why'd she quit the team, she just told them that she was tired of it, and they never mentioned it again. If Emily had to guess, that was the one thing she's enjoyed the most about her parents not caring about her anymore, it was the the fact that she got to do whatever she wanted without having to explain herself to them.

When they stop outside of the swim room Spencer turns to face Emily. "Well this is it. Your next period is lunch, and it's down the hall to your left. It has a big sign that says cafeteria, you can't miss it." Spencer says with a head nod before she takes off towards the girls locker room.

Emily lets out a sigh as she turns to peer inside the room. There's girls and gals everywhere. In the water, some on the bleachers, even jumping on the diving board. They all look like they're having fun. And Emily's certain that she won't if she's forced to get into that pool. So she makes the last minute decision of sneaking out the back door of the building to have a smoke behind the bleachers of the football field, where she can hide from the untrained eye.

She watches as the boys football team practice without their gear on. Running plays and doing sprints across the field. She looks down at her watch to check the time. When she sees she has more than ten minutes left, she lights up another cigarette.

"Mind if I bum one of those off of you?" A voice behind her asks.

She turns to see a guy standing behind her with a leather jacket and shaggy brown hair. He gives off the perfect bad boy persona but for Emily she's seen badder boys. "Uh sure." She says handing him a cigarette. She made a mental note to stop by the store on her way home today. She needed two packs of cigarettes one for the week and the other to replace the pack she took from her secrete stash.

"Thanks." He mutters as he lights it up. He inhales a deep breath then exhales a puff of smoke. "You know if the principal catches you out here, he's going to rip you a new anus." He says never turning to look at her.

"Yeah. Well." Emily says with a shrug. "I can see you're not that afraid, so I'm guessing he's a big marshmallow."

This causes the guy to smirk. "Maybe. But he's also my dad and if he expelled me my mom would make him sleep on the couch for a year." He jokes.

Emily nods her head then puts her cigarette out. "Right." She stuffs her hands in her pocket to shield it from the Midday cold.

"So, what brings you out here?" He asks casually making conversation. He watches her out the corner of his eye as he continues to puff down his cigarette. He's never seen her here before, so he's assuming she's a new girl. She pretty, tall and he likes her style of dress, which is much different from the preppy girls around here. He can already see them being friends.

"Same as you I'm assuming." Emily replies shortly.

"Okay. I'm Caleb." He introduces himself.

"Emily." Emily responds curtly.

"You don't talk much do you?" He asks.

"I don't have much to say, if that's what your asking." She responds back.

"Okay. So do you wanna make out?" He asks.

Emily frowns. "I'm gay."

Caleb bites his lip to stop the smile from breaking out on his face. "We better go. The bell is about to ring." He announces and not even a second later the bell sounds around them, warning of the five minutes they have to get to the next class. "Thanks for the cigarette Emily, I'll see you around." He says before walking away.

Emily brushes off her encounter with him before she turns and walks towards the cafeteria. When she gets there, it reminds her of the lunchroom scene from high school musical. There was cliques at each table and of course in the center of the room was the popular kids. Their laughing and gossiping with each other without a care in a world. If only they had real problems like the rest of the world, then maybe they wouldn't smile so much.

Emily scans the cafeteria for a sit to take when she spots Spencer sitting at a table in the corner by herself, surrounded by books. Emily shakes her head at the girls compulsiveness as she walks to the back. When she sits down across from Spencer, the girl in mention lifts her head in surprise.

"Emily...hi." Spencer says in surprise. Even though she's been showing Emily around the building all day, she never expected her to want to hang out with her outside of that. Let alone have lunch with her. Emily's new, she has a chance to reinvent herself, the last thing she wants to do is associate herself with the Hastings girl. Her reputation isn't something that allows her many friends, though it gets her far in life...she hates to admit that it's lonely up top.

"Hey." Emily says with a small wave as she sets down the brown paper bag that her dad made her for lunch. She didn't remember picking it up, so she's fairly certain that her dad slipped it into her back pack when she wasn't paying attention. Emily surveys the table with a frown. "Your not eating lunch?" She asks.

Spencer's eyes widen slightly before she shakes her head. "Uh no. I'm not really that hungry." She explains.

"Nonsense." Emily says taking out her PB&J and ripping it in half.

Spencer smiles teasingly at Emily's lunch. "Is that a peanut butter and Jelly sandwich? I haven't had one of those since I was a kid." She says with a giggle.

Emily lets out a scoff. "Yeah me neither." She says passing her an apple too.

Spencer excepts the apple with a smile. "If you keep giving me your lunch you wouldn't have anything left for yourself."

"Thanks for your concern, but if I know my dad, he always packs two of everything in here." Emily explains pulling out another water.

They fall into a comfortable silence as they both munch on their lunch. Spencer head falls back into her books and Emily scans the cafeteria people watching.

That's when she spots someone out of the corner of her eye. Her blonde hair is the first thing that she notices, next is the girls physique. It's hard to tell from a distance, but Emily can still see the girls body standing on that bridge, it's the first thing she noticed when she walked on the bridge. But that couldn't be her. That could be anyone, but if it was her this would have to be a dream or a nightmare to make it so. Emily frowns as she drops her half eaten sandwich on the table, then quickly stands up, just as the girl in question stands up as well with her lunch tray in hand.

"Emily are you okay?" Spencer asks, watching Emily's dazed look. Spencer turns to see what could have possible caught Emily's attention but can't seem to find what's so interesting about a cafeteria.

"Lauren...?" Emily mutters to herself. No, no, no it couldn't be. Emily starts to walk over there but her path is cut off by the students moving too and fro the lunch lines and surrounding tables. Emily does her best to push them out of her way but by the time she makes her way through the crowd, the blonde is gone.

'Fuck'. Emily thinks as she runs a frustrated hand through her hair. She turns to look at the cafeteria door to see blonde hair disappear behind it as it closes. Quick on her feet Emily runs after her. But by the time she gets to the hallway, there's no sign of the blonde anywhere.

Emily can feel the dread flow through her at the disappearance of the girl. Maybe it wasn't her after all, maybe her mind was just playing tricks on her because subconsciously she couldn't get her out her head all day. But whatever just happened, that shit messed with her head more the anything.

"Emily...?" Emily hears a voice say softly behind her. "Is everything okay?"

Emily huffs out a breath. "Yeah. Everything's fine." She lies.

"Are you sure...you seem upset about something." Spencer inquires. She was worried when Emily stood from the table but even more concerned when she fled from the cafeteria the way she did.

Emily bites her lip in contemplation before she turns to face Spencer. "Do you have a girl that goes this school named Lauren? Blonde hair, blue eyes?" Emily asks. If anyone would know who this Lauren girl was, Spencer would. She knows everything.

Spencer frowns in confusion as she does a mental scan of all the girls in this school by the name of Lauren. "No. The only girls we have here named Lauren is a red head, and she has green eyes. And the other is a brunette with brown eyes." Spencer recalls.

Emily lets out a disappointed sigh. "Okay thanks." She says forcing a smile towards Spencer "We should go back and finish lunch." Emily says moving pass her not giving Spencer a chance to respond.

The rest of the day sucked. Emily was paranoid. She spent most of the day thinking that she would see Lauren at any moment. She couldn't concentrate on anything that was school related. The work on the papers would go unanswered and the questions directed at her would go ignored. Emily's been out of it before but this was a bit extreme.

School ended quickly but not quick enough for her. She felt like an object just floating through the day. Everyone giving her looks; curious about the new girl. Some would even ask her questions. But she ignored them all.

When she met Aria outside of the school to walk home, Aria seemed concerned. She asked her a million and one questions and Emily was just about ready to rip her ears off. But she didn't want to offend the baby doll girl, just because she was having a bad day. So she answered them as briefly as she could until they stopped in front of Arias house. She gave her a polite smile and wished her a good evening then she took off towards her house. When Emily entered she slammed the door pressing her body against it, as if to stop intruders from kicking down the door. She squeezes her eyes shut and lets out the deep breath that she held in all day. She could really use a cigarette right now.

"Hi Em, how was school?" She hears her mother ask.

Emily lets out another deep breath as she quickly ascends the stairs two steps at a time. "It was fine." She replies shortly.

Pam Fields exits the kitchen to try and catch of glimpse of her fast moving daughter. "Okay. Dinner will be ready in an hour, please wash up and join us." She yells after her.

Emily doesn't respond she just slams her door shut. She drops her back pack on the ground before flopping backwards on her bed. She doesn't really want to join her parents for dinner tonight. She knows they'll ask about school. She doesn't really want to talk about school, because she really didn't pay attention all to well. They'll ask her about her teachers and she'll want to tell them that the entire curriculum is behind a year, they'll want to get her moved up but she'll have to protest, and when they ask why not, she'll have to explain to them that she rather not have to work that hard for an A. They'll think less of her but that's okay because she already thinks less of them. I mean it is their fault that she's in this town and mediocre school anyways.

She lets out a deep breath as she closes her eyes. The day was dragging on her and she was ready for it to just end. But her body won't rest as she feels that need coming back. Emily springs off her bed and opens her window up. She checks her bedroom door to make sure her parents aren't coming before she climbs out onto the roof. She pulls out a cigarette and fires away.

When she inhales she can feel the smoke feeling her lungs providing her a sense of comfort before she exhales it all out.

"Emmy Dinner." She hears her dad announce as he gives two knocks to the door before making his way down stairs as well.

Emily flicks the cigarette off the roof before jumping back through the window. She takes off her shirt and replaces it with a new one to get rid of the cigarette smell. She slowly makes her way down stairs to see her parents sitting silently at the dinner table.

When they see Emily enter both of them plaster smiles on their face. Emily can see that it's forced and it makes her internally rolls her eyes. She sits down giving them both strange looks.

"So Emmy would you like to say grace?" Wayne asks as he takes his wife hand, while reaching for Emily's hand.

Emily stares at his hand before shaking her head. "No thank you. I don't really do that anymore." She says. This causes her Pam to frown but she doesn't give a response to it.

"Okay I'll start." He says clearing his throat as he bows his head.

"Can we skip this tonight." Emily says cutting him off. Both her parents stare at her in confusion. "Please..." she says softly.

Both parents share a look before Wayne nods his head. "Okay. Can you pass the peas." He asks.

Emily nods her head before passing the dishes around.

Dinner goes by awkwardly. Every question asked by her parents Emily gives them one word answers. Soon the conversation stops altogether.

The phone rings and the silence is cut in half as Pam excuses herself to answer it. Wayne takes this as his cue to spark up a conversation with Emily, even against the warning look she sends his way.

"So Emmy, how was school?" He asks.

"Fine." She says shortly.

"Did you make any new friends?" He tries again.

"Other than the ones you set me up with? No." Emily says sarcastically.

Wayne open his mouth to say something but is cut off by Pam entering the kitchen with a hard look on her face. "The phone is for you." She says.

Wayne frowns then stands up to take the phone. "Hello?" He frowns when he hears the other voice on the end of the phone. "How are you?...yes...I'll fly down soon. Okay talk to you later. Bye." He slowly brings the phone away from his ear as he stares at Pam with an apologetic look on his face.

"How did she get this number?" Pam asks in a strained voice.

"I gave it to her. How else do you expect me to keep in touch with my kid?" He asks sarcastically.

"I do not want her calling this house anymore!" Pam says through clenched teeth.

"We don't have a choice." Wayne says.

"If I have to hear her voice again I swear to god-" she starts before she's cut off by Emily slamming her hands on the dinner table, causing the plates and silverware to clatter noisily.

"Can we just have one peaceful night!" Emily exclaims. "God!" She yells as she storms out the backdoor. She ignores the calls of both her parents as she runs down the street.

Once she gets halfway to her destination she finally slows down. She's barely out of breath, which surprises her seeing as though she's a smoker. She wipes the loan tear that fell down her cheek aggressively as she bites her lip to stop the rest from coming. This was such bullshit. All they did was fight she was just ready for the other shoe to drop. Why didn't they just leave each other. Like they wanted. Like they needed to.

She didn't need this. Emily thought to herself as she reached the destination that she dreamed about the entire day.

"You're early." The blonde says as she looks out over the water.


	3. Chapter 3

**Yellow Paint**

 **Episode 3: A place that we meet.**

"You're late." The blonde says as she dangles her feet over the open water.

"You were waiting for me?" Emily asks in surprise. Emily's still trying to process if the girl in front of her is real or not. The last time she saw the blonde it was a figment of her imagination in the cafeteria, so right now she's not so sure if that's still true.

"I had a feeling you were going to show up again." Lauren says never looking up at her. "Just not this early."

"Well I hope your not too disappointed to see me. I was kind of looking forward to seeing you." Emily says as she walks over to the bridge leaning against the railing, next to where the blonde is sitting.

"Why? Were you afraid that I jumped after you went home yesterday?" Lauren asks with a teasing smile.

Emily ignores her question, instead she appraises the blonde for a moment. "I think this is the first time that I've seen you smile." She points out.

Lauren turns to face her, smile now absent from her face. "When I'm up here, its because I really have nothing worth smiling about." She says with an dark expression.

Emily doesn't respond, instead she just swallows the bile that forms in her throat.

To be honest this girl scares her more than anything. She's so unpredictable. You never know what she's going to stay or do and Emily can never get a clear read off of her.

"How'd you know where I lived?" Emily asks her curiously. After the blonde got her home last night, it never registered in her head until midday that Lauren knew where she lived. It was strange, seeing as though Emily was unconscious and unable to give out her address.

"Did you know your dad computer chipped the necklace that you wear?" Lauren asks duly while staring out at the horizon.

"What!" Emily practically yells. She looks down at the dog tag that's around her neck. Her dad gave it to her when she was a little girl, that way when he went off to war she'd still have a piece of him with her when he left.

"In the back where the words are suppose to be, if you slide that little thing up, it's a chip that you can put into your phone and it tells you exactly where you live and how to contact someone if they find your dog tags." Lauren turns to face Emily. "I take it you didn't know that." She states after reading the surprised expression on her face.

Emily shakes her head no before resting her chin on her forearms. Although the news is shocking to her, she's not surprised. Her dad was always really calm when she would leave the house or stay out late. It was her mom that used to freak out on her for not calling if she wasn't coming in on time. So Emily guesses that her mom doesn't know about the chip neither.

Lauren then frowns. "How'd you know I brought you home last night?" Lauren asks curiously. She could have sworn the girl was out cold as she drug her through the back streets of Rosewood away from public eye. Which took so much longer.

"My dad saw you. And he wasn't to pleased that I was having company at 4:00 in the morning." Emily says with a teasing smile. She still finds it amusing that her dad discovered Lauren bringing her home. She's honestly surprised he didn't say anything to Alison, or interrogate her about her purpose of being in their house.

"How'd he-"

"He's a Marine, and also the lightest sleeper in the world. He could hear me breathing from the other side of the room." Emily explains with a shrug. She thinks back to all the times she tried to sneak in and out of the house and her dad was standing by the door waiting for her.

Lauren seems to accept this answer as she just nods her head and looks away from Emily again. They fall into a comfortable silence for a moment before Emily decides to break it.

"So why this place? Out of all the places you could go for comfort, why this one?" Emily asks curiously. She's been down in life many of times, but for relief she'd just smoke or take a swim, but never would she sit on an abandoned bridge and trick (or not) people into thinking she's committing suicide. That's just...weird.

"Why not this place?" Lauren says with a shrug. "It's quiet, secluded, and no one but weirdos visit." She explains. She hides the smile on her face, realizing that Emily has yet to catch on to her teasing word.

And at the same time Emily just nods her head in understanding. It takes her a moment before realization dawns on her about the blonde calling her a weirdo. "Hey!" Emily exclaims half heartedly, giving Lauren a playful nudge. "If I'm a weirdo, than what does that make you?" She jokes back.

Lauren just gives her a small smile. "Anyone tell you you're too easy Emily?" Lauren asks with a tilt of her head. She meant the question to be a rhetorical joke, she didn't expect Emily to actually answer it or take it serious.

Emily frowns at the question before nodding her head because yeah she has. And the blonde asking her that question turned out to be a trigger for her. Bringing her back to memories that she'd never

forget. So instead of laughing at the joke Emily answers her honestly. "Yeah. I have been told that. It caused a lot of problems back home in Texas. I slept with a many of girls; even ones with boyfriends or girlfriends." She says with a shrug. "It was like if they asked I did it." Emily says with a quiet self deprecating laugh. Besides the experiences that Emily gained sexually from sleeping around with all those girls, that's the one thing she's regretted more than anything in her entire. A lot of people hated her for what she was doing, including her parents. She became one of the biggest players in the town, and he sad part is she knew what she was doing and still couldn't help herself.

After hearing Emily's words, Lauren fights a battle between being shocked and confused. Lauren turns to stare at Emily. Scrutinizing her appearance, trying to catch where Emily thoughts were leading her. But she couldn't get a read off of this girl. Emily was gorgeous, like some foreign model, she reeked of confidence but it was masked by her indifference. It made her the most interesting person in Lauren's eyes. She's never met someone who was so open as Emily, well at least open to her. She had a feeling that outside the comfort of this bridge Emily put up a brick wall with barbed wire around it.

When Lauren notice she was staring to long she breaks out of her gaze and clears her throat. "Why?" Is all Lauren asks.

Emily doesn't have to look at Lauren to see the confused look on her face. Instead she just takes out a cigarette and lights it.

She lets out a deep breath after she inhales the nicotine. Relaxing her a little more before she dives into the deep discussion of her promiscuous days. "I don't know. I think I did it for comfort...my parents had just started fighting all the time and I just knew my world was ending. I was so lost and confused that I just needed comfort from something... somebody. So I started dating and staying out at night, meeting all these different women. But after I would sleep with a girl, that comfort just went away and so did I. It was like I absorbed everything I needed from them with one kiss. And it didn't matter who it was, I've ruined friendships, turned people against each other. My innocent reputation just tanked." Emily shrugs off her uneasiness before taking another puff. She hates talking about her life to other people but for some reason this blonde takes on the purpose of a shrink, and her gentle eyes makes Emily want to bare her soul to her.

"We all do things that we're not proud of to survive Emily. That's what makes us human." Lauren says comfortingly. No matter how any people Emily hurt on her spiral down, Emily should remember that she was hurting too. And although most would be pissed off at that excuse Alison allowed her to use it, because sure if sucked, but people had used worse excuses to ruin a persons life than that.

"I know." Emily says with a shrug. And Emily does know. She excepted what she's done to people. That part of her life, though she's deeply ashamed of how she hurt the people around her, she doesn't regret. It taught her a lot of things even if it came in a lesson to pay.

The fall into another silence.

"You seem sad today." Lauren observes as she watches Emily closely. Yesterday when Emily came she didn't seem upset she seemed irritated, angry maybe, and then all that went out the window when she saw the blonde sitting on the ledge of this bridge. All her emotions were channeled to fear. But right now as Lauren looks at Emily, she can see that soft edge to her. The brunette didn't just come here to see her, she was escaping something in her household as well.

"I was sad yesterday too." Emily reasons. Which is only partially true. She was pissed yesterday, she couldn't get any sleep. It was three in the morning and she knew she had to be up the next day for school. So she fled the scene of the crime before she decided to do something stupid, like torch the place down.

Lauren just shakes her head. "No you were content yesterday, angry even...but today you're sad." She points out. She doesn't know why she's pushing Emily for answers it's not like she forth coming with them either.

Emily swallows the lump forming in her throat and pulls out her cigarettes again. She normally doesn't chain smoke but she can see that the conversation topics tonight might be heavy, especially this one. She'll need something to calm her nerves. "My parents were fighting so I took off." Emily explains simply. It's never more than arguing, it's never gotten physical but that's not the point. Their words cut deeper then anything, even if they're not saying to Emily herself.

"About what?" Lauren asks.

"About the woman back in Texas. She called the house and my mom lost it." Emily says with a short laugh. Because surprising enough that was something that made her mom mad the most. Pam could pretend they were a happy family as long as what happened in Texas wasn't tossed back in her face, and her dad broke the cardinal rule. How could he be so stupid. "I didn't want to hear it so I left." She says with a shrug. And she honestly was looking forward to seeing the blonde today, so any excuse would have done the trick really.

"I'm sorry that you have to go through this." Lauren says sincerely. She doesn't like seeing Emily sad. Even if they did just meet only yesterday. She likes her as a person. Emily's pretty cool, persistent, but cool.

"It's all right." Emily says lighting another cigarette. "Some people have it way worse than I do." She says as she takes a puff from her cigarette.

At that statement Alison just gives a forced smile. Because she agreed. Some people's lives just weren't ones worth living, including herself. "I'm sure that's true..." is all Alison offers instead. She'd rather not go into detail about her fucked up situation.

They sit in another comfortable silence as Emily finishes her cigarette.

"So you know all these things about me...but I know nothing about you besides your name." Emily flicks the cigarette into the water and Alison flinches, but not at the cigarette. "So please indulge me...tell me something...anything."

"Like what?" Lauren asks. Her voice shaking slightly. She's only known Emily for two days now. She doesn't want to give up all her information to someone she doesn't know she can trust yet. Although she's positive that she can trust Emily, she still has her reservations about confessing her life story to some stranger. Especially a stranger in this town.

"Like...do you have any siblings?" Emily asks casually. She doesn't see the stress rolling off of Lauren.

"Yes. Two. A sister and brother." Lauren answers.

Emily's raises an eyebrow, she would have pegged the blonde as an only child. "Interesting. So are you older?" She asks. She wants to get as much information out of the blonde as she can.

"Nope. My brother would have been 21 and my sister would have been 18." Lauren says with a frown. She has to bite her lip to keep the memories of her siblings from flooding her thoughts, but it's always been a sore spot for her... to talk about her family.

Emily frowns in confusion. "Wait, you lost both your sister and brother?" She asks. She feels her heart clench in sympathy for the blonde. She wouldn't know what to do if she lost someone close to her like that...she wonders if the blonde was even close with her siblings.

"Yeah. My brother died in a drunk driving accident and my sister...well my sister committed suicide." Lauren says the last part sadly. She looks down at her lap, twiddling her thumbs as a distraction. As much as she loved her brother and how much his death affected her, she really hates talking about her sister. They were much closer.

Emily swallows the small lump in her throat before taking Lauren's hand in hers. "I'm sorry that you had to experience that." She says sincerely back. "What does your parents do?" She then asks curiously. She wonders if Lauren's parents are supportive as they should be, or do they ignore her. She wonders did they hold her during the funerals or did they focus on their own mourning and left her to battle on her own demons.

Lauren seems to hesitate at the question. She doesn't know what to say...the truth, as simple as it is, is far more complicated than people would like to believe. "My dad doesn't work, and my mom is an accountant, so she's barely home most times." She explains.

"Are you close with your dad?" Emily asks. The more Lauren talks the more Emily feels sympathy for the girl. Her life is literally something you see on Lifetime. Emily just wants to find some sort of silver lining for the girl.

"Nope." Is all Lauren offers.

"What about your mom.?" Emily asks. Emily knows that Lauren said her mom is barely there, but for Emily even when her dad would be deployed he was still her favorite parent, and she'd miss him dearly, wishing he would just come home just so she could see his face. Even though that's changed, she still could never forget that feeling.

"No." This time when Lauren speaks the words her face hardens and her eyes become cold and distant. She becomes lost in the thought of her mother and everything that comes with having a mother like her. The thoughts makes her angry and she suddenly feels the urge to hit something.

Emily frowns and she wrings her hands together. She studies the girl next to her. Lauren is dressed differently today. She's devoid of her white night gown, that made her look like an angel, and instead dressed in a regular sundress, that looks really pretty on her. Her face is hard and her fingers tap incessantly against the wooden ledge. She's anxious. Emily then takes a deep breath before hoisting herself up to sit on the bridge.

Lauren looks at her with a mixture between shock and confusion. "What are you doing?" She asks, as she places her hand on Emily's shoulder, helping to steady her body so she won't fall into the water bellow. She knows she tricked Emily into thinking she'd jump, but even she knows that it's death upon impact and being up here is probably not the safest way to do something.

"Well..." Emily starts as she sits along the ledge. She lets out a deep breath to calm her fast beating heart. Everything she said the night before was true: Emily hates heights, she can feel her stomach drop at the the thought of going over. "I kind of just wanted to see what the fuss was about being up here, and I gotta say I don't see the appeal... you're bat shit crazy." Emily jokes.

Lauren starts giggling and Emily decides that's her most favorite sound in the world.

After Lauren's laugh fades out they sit along the ledge in silence. Softly absorbing the sounds around them, allowing nature to render them speechless.

Emily looks over to Alison to see her head tilted back with her eyes closed. "So, we're on a ship and the captain asks you where to miss...? And you say?" Emily asks taking Lauren's hand in hers.

"The stars..." Lauren whispers playfully as she gazes up dramatically. She's hoping that Emily would get her titanic reference.

In which she does. Emily smirks and nudges Lauren playfully. "I'm serious here. This man is risking his job to go off course for you...be honest." Emily says, because takes it seriously, a hope and a dream is all someone can have. Especially someone with a shitty life like she, and she assumes that Lauren has.

The smile never falls off of Lauren's face as she continues to stare out at the open lake. "I want to go to Paris, visit the Eiffel Tower...the Louvre...Arc De Triomphe ...eat the exotic foods. Meet the people, learn the language..." Lauren says wistfully. She wants more than anything for those things to happen.

"That sounds amazing..." Emily says staring out. "I would tell you mine but yours seem much cooler. Maybe I can tag along with you." She says nudging Lauren again this time giving her a small smile.

Lauren gives her a small smirk in return. "Maybe...I'll let you know. I plan on taking someone special with me when I go...so you have a lot of brown nosing to do." She says teasingly. But in all actuality she planed on going alone. She wanted to pack up and leave this town behind and she never planned on looking back. She'd leave now if it wouldn't cost her her life, she'll just wait until she graduates. And who knows maybe Emily will become special enough to take along.

"I wouldn't even leave the US." Emily says after a moment of silence. "I would just buy a bad ass car and drive around the states; doing odd jobs for money, meet new and different people. Having sex with the most beautiful to the weirdest looking women." She says with a chuckle. "I wouldn't be tied to just one place, I would be free from commitments and from obligations. I'd come home on holidays but I wouldn't stay forever. I'd be the bad girl of the US, everywhere you go they would whisper my name. I'd be some urban myth: the Filipina who concurred America." Emily says then looks down at her hands with a frown.

Lauren stares at Emily for a moment her face devoid of emotions as she watches Emily go through about five different emotions. "That sounds lonely." She says honestly.

Emily nods her head, not making eye contact with her. Tears build and she tries her hardest not to let them fall but they do anyway. "Who needs love when all it does is end in heartache anyways...I damn sure don't." She says.

Lauren can see they differ in dreams but have the same goals. Both of them want to run away from the life they were given. The dreams they chase is to help them become someone new, not live the same heartache they live in the lives the have now. It's sad but slightly poetic.

"Not everyone you meet will hurt you." And as soon as the words leave Lauren's mouth she knows that it's a lie. Because so far in her life everyone close to her has either died or either nonexistent, and that hurts the most because she can see them and she reaches out for them but they chose to actively ignore her.

Emily nods her head as she wipes her tears away. "Well, sometimes giving people the power to hurt you is just as scary as them actually doing it." She explains, because how many people do you just willingly open your hearts to and they later down the line screw you over. Sometimes your just spending your time waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Lauren doesn't respond to that, she just looks back out at the water. "When I was little my sister and I built our own tree house in the woods in the back of our house. No one knew about it but us. We never spoke about it out loud either. We'd draw a house on a piece of paper and slip it under the door of each other's room. It was our special symbol." She says with a wistful look on her face. "We'd go there and play with our dolls and hide from everyone. No boys were allowed was stamped on a sign on the front door. It was our own little magical castle."

"Wow so I'm sitting in the presence of royalty..." Emily states with a smile. "So is there a prince in the picture?" She asks curiously. The blonde never talked about a significant other, and Emily really wants to know if this blonde beauty have someone chasing behind her.

Lauren smirks at Emily. "Wouldn't you like to know?" She asks teasingly.

"Yeah I really would..." Emily says honestly.

Lauren stares at her for a moment before shrugging. "No one worth mentioning."

"Seriously, that shocks the hell out of me. I can't imagine no one pursuing you, you're way to gorgeous for that." Emily says openly.

Lauren blushes a deep red and she looks away from Emily. "Well of course there's offers, but that's just what they are. Sometimes people only want one thing from you...once they get it they leave you." She says shaking her head at the memory of all the advances she's rebutted.

"And what exactly do they want from you?" Emily asks knowingly as she moves closer to Lauren.

"They want to touch you. And they want to kiss you just so it can lead to other things..." Lauren says. She swallows the lump in her throat as she notices the close proximity of Emily to her. She knows her answer was very elementary, but from her understanding that's the best answer she could give.

"Who says kissing someone will lead to other stuff...who says that kissing someone even has to be more than just that. A kiss." Emily says in a soft voice before glossing her lips over with her tongue.

"Because it just does..." Lauren argues, but even as she says those words she doesn't know if she believes it anymore, especially with the way that Emily is looking at her right now.

Emily just nods her head before grabbing Lauren by the base of her neck and pulling her in for a kiss. And even though it was just gentle touching of their lips, Emily can still feel shiver run down her spine. When Emily pulls back, she has to physically stop herself leaning back in. Lauren's lips was really soft. And Emily's libido is kicking in, and right now she so wants to lean back in and kiss her. So she guesses Lauren could be right, kissing may just be a gateway for other things. But not this kiss, Emily had in urge to kiss her again but not defile her, she'd do other girls she meets.

"See. We kissed and nothing happened." Emily says in a soft voice.

Lauren stares at her for a moment in shock. That was one of the softest kisses she's ever experienced. "Why did you kiss me?" She asks curiously.

"To prove a point." Emily says simply.

Lauren shakes her head. "You can't just kiss someone and not have it mean something. Everything we do has intention." She says. That kiss, though simple, made her feel something... something she can't quite place.

Emily just shrugs. "Okay, well who's to say that it wasn't good intention behind that kiss?" She says casually.

"What was your good intention then?" Lauren asks.

"To make you feel better." Emily says. When Lauren lets out a scoff she frowns. "No seriously. When I used to feel sad kissing someone always provided a comfort, it wasn't just the physical part of being touched but it was the emotional part. It's like when you fall down and your mother kisses your boo boo. It's comforting, like knowing someone's there and they care about you." Emily explains. And it's true, she's always loved kissing people, that's how a lot of things got started with her best friend back in Texas. That relationship did not end well.

"You don't need to get physical with someone to find comfort. You could write it down, pray about it...I don't know anything other than that." Lauren says with a shrug. It's not that she didn't like the kiss, it's just that she doesn't understand the mind set of it.

Emily scoffs. "Writing it down is like keeping it bottled up and praying to God is the same thing as talking to yourself." She says with a grimace.

"So I take it your not religious? So who do you turn to when you need answers?" Lauren asks.

"I don't know...reason...truth...anything other than the explanation that it's all apart of a plan or God doesn't put us through anything that we can't handle. Because that's just bullshit." Emily says shaking her head. "I used to believe though. I went to church every Sunday with my mom. But after everything that's happened; me coming out and the way my mom reacted to my dad cheating on my mom and getting another girl pregnant. I just don't know if I can believe anymore." She says honestly.

Lauren nods her head in understanding even though she disagrees. She believes in God, she knows that all the shit raining down on her in life isn't it for her. Something calls her name, greater than this. And she can't wait to find out. But she doesn't tell Emily that. That confession could lead into one heavy ass conversation and they've confessed enough for the day.

So they spend the night in silence, staring out at the stars and the lake below.

~x~X~x~X~x~X~x~X~

When Emily finally made her way home, it was around 3:30am. She knew once she opened the door there might be hell to pay. There was no way that her dad went to bed, she knew he was up. So she didn't try to sneak in. She just walked through the front door and made her way to her room.

When she opened her bedroom door, there sitting on her bed was the guy in mention. Holding the stuffed animal in his hands that he had bought her at a county fair when she was little girl.

"Dad.." she says softly. "What are you doing in here?" She asks confused.

Wayne doesn't look up at her. He just continues to squeeze the bear in his hands, taking calming breathes like he's trying to fight his emotions. "I'm sorry." Wayne says in a gruff voice. He doesn't clarify what he's sorry for because there's so many things that fall into the sorry category, that he never apologized for. "I ruined this family with my dishonesty and now you hate me, and for that I am ashamed." He says squeezing the teddy bear in his hand again before setting it down. "I want to make this right. I want to fix this." He stands up. "That's why me and your mom agreed we should all see a councilor." He walks over to Emily, his frame towering over her. "I love you..." he kisses her head then leaves the room.

As Emily watches him leave she can't help but feel a wave of disappointment hit her. she didn't want the heartfelt

confession, she doesn't need that. She knew her dad screwed up the moment he announced a baby was coming. She needed his anger, she needed to be angry with him back. _That's it?_ Emily thinks. _I storm in the house at this time of night and that's all I get._ She shrugs to herself before shedding her clothes and climbing into her bed. She only had four hours before she had to be up and ready for school, she won't waste a minute of sleep.

In the morning Emily had a hard time dragging herself out of bed. But she knew that if she didn't, her dad would come in and wake her up. She'd be annoyed and it might ruin her day. After getting showered and dressed, she quickly rushes outside ignoring her moms offer of breakfast. When she opens the door Aria is standing on her front porch with a smile.

"Hey." Aria says cheerfully. She likes Emily, besides the self brooding look Emily sports almost every day, she's easy to talk to and she's reserved. Aria really looks forward to seeing the girl.

"Sup." Emily says casually as she slings her backpack over her shoulder.

Aria smiles as she and Emily walk off the porch together, towards the school. "How was your night? You look tired." Aria observes. She looks at the bags under Emily's eyes.

"Uh, yeah I didn't get much sleep last night." Emily says simply. And that's the last words she utters as Aria picks up the conversation, talking the entire time until they reached their destination.

Emily makes her way tiredly inside the building ready for the day to already be over. She's now feeling the effects of staying up to late and she missed her morning smoke and it's giving her small jitters.

She stuffs her bag in her locker and takes out her book for her morning class.

"Hey Emily." Spencer says appearing on the side of her. She's still a little nervous about speaking with Emily right now. She doesn't know if the girl considers her a friend or not. But when Emily gives her a small smile she considers this a good sign. "How was your night?" she asks curiously.

"Still under evaluation. So I can't answer that right now." Emily says with a smirk. "What about you?" Emily doesn't know why she feels so comfortable around Spencer. The brunette doesn't annoy her like most people do. Emily finds value in her as a person, maybe they'll become good friends.

"Got some studying done. Did some homework, practiced for the field hockey game this Saturday." Spencer says with a shrug as she and Emily begin walking down the hall towards their class. "You look exhausted." Spencer observes.

Emily just rolls her eyes. This is the second time someone's said something about her looking tired. She wonders how bad she really looks. "I just had a long night is all." Emily says as she stops in front of her classroom door.

"Well, you should probably work on that. You can't learn if your not well rested. See you later." Spencer says as she drops Emily off at her class then makes her way towards her own.

Emily smiles to herself as she walks into her room. _That girl is so neurotic._

The day seemed to go by in a blur. Again Emily sort of just went through the motions of her lessons and soon she finds herself standing outside of the pool room again. But just like yesterday she decides to take a smoke break.

She watches the football team practice in their jerseys. This time she's sitting on the ground, more hidden in the shadows.

"Can I bum a smoke?" She hears the voice of Caleb asks again from behind her.

Emily wordlessly pulls out a cigarette and offers if to him.

Caleb excepts the cigarette with a smirk. He's curious to see how many times will Emily let him bum smokes off of him before she finally says something. "So are you really gay?" Caleb asks as a conversation starter.

Emily looks up at him with a frown. Why the hell was he asking her that? Was he serious yesterday when he asked to make out with her? Because if he was, she might just kick him in the sack. "Yeah..." she says turning away from him.

"Cool." Is all Caleb says before sitting down next to her. There's not a lot of people out at this school. The town was small, gossiped spreads fast, so people cared to much about their image to live their lives carefree. "Are you a senior?" he asks.

"A junior." Emily answers.

"Hmm." Caleb says casually as he puffs from his cigarette. "So where did you transfer from? Did you go to Rosewood Academy?" He asks her. She doesn't seem familiar, most people who live here grew up here so it's hard to forget faces. Everyone knows everyone.

"No. I'm from Texas." Emily says shortly again.

"Are you making any new friends around here? I can tell your very social." Caleb says teasingly.

Emily cracks a smile at his joke. "What about you? I'm not the only one hiding under a bleacher." Emily teases back.

"You're right. But I've been here long enough to know the people in this town aren't worth getting to know...you on the other hand haven't been here long enough to make that decision. You should at least give them a chance to ruin your life." Caleb says with a mock stern face.

Emily just rolls her eyes and chuckles at him. "I'm glad that your so concerned about my wellbeing but I think I can make my own friends without your guidance." She says with a shrug as she finishes off of her cigarette.

"By making friends, I really hope you mean me." Caleb says. He doesn't know why he finds it so amusing to give Emily shit. Maybe it's because she gives it right back to him. But his thoughts from the day before might be true: Emily might become one of his good friends.

"Maybe." Emily breaths out as she finishes the rest of her cigarette.

Just than a whistle sounds and Emily sees the football coach throw down his clipboard yelling something at the players. Emily watches in curiosity as the boys on the team shrug at whatever the coach says.

"Fuck." Caleb says standing up. "He noticed I was gone." He says taking one last puff of his cigarette before dropping it on the ground and stomping it out.

Emily watches with her mouth wide open as Caleb walks over to a bag by the bleachers pulling out a blue jersey with the number 5 on it. He quickly slips it on before grabbing the helmet next to the ground and running out towards the field.

"What the fuck.." Emily mutters to herself. So this entire time he was on the football team? And from the looks of it he's the quarterback. Emily watches as the coach slaps Caleb on the back of the helmet before shoving the ball in his hand. The coach blows his whistle and the practice resumes. After Caleb throws the ball to his teammate she notices he looks over at her giving her a small wave, one that no one notices but her. Emily laughs again and shakes her head. This guy was cooler than she thought.

After the bell sounds, Emily makes her way to the cafeteria, towards the table that Spencer was sitting at yesterday, the one she was currently sitting at today. "Hey Spencer." Emily says as she sits down.

"Hi Emily." Spencer responds with a smile of her own. It's going to take some getting used to, having a friend around in all. "Did you bring anymore of those delicious sandwiches?" Spencer asks teasingly. In reality she doesn't think it's funny that Emily dad packs her such a personal lunch, If anything she feels envious.

"Uh..." Emily pauses slightly. She totally forgot to pack herself a lunch. Maybe she has some snacks in her bag. When she digs her hand around in there, she runs her fingers across a brown bag. Emily pulls it out and examines it. Her dad snuck in her lunch in her backpack because he knew that she wasn't going to except the lunch if it came from him. "I guess I do." Emily says as she breaks apart half her sandwich and offers if to the brunette, who takes it gratefully.

Spencer excepts the sandwich with a huge smile before she goes back to reading the book in her hand.

Emily takes this time to observe the Cafeteria again. Everything is still the same as it was before, except this time Emily intentionally looks over at the popular table. And that's when she sees her. The girl of her dreams, or at least the girl that appears at the hours when dreams are suppose to happen "Lauren..." Emily whispers to herself as she watches the girl in mention laughing and conversing with her friends. She looks so different in this setting. Emily was so used to seeing the blonde in a state of indifference, unhappiness, that seeing her laughing and happy was almost troubling.

But she was beautiful when she smiled. Emily wouldn't be able to get that image out of her mind. It was burned into her brain, her cells now form the outline of her dimples.

"Who's Lauren?" Spencer asks. She's been watching Emily stare at someone across the cafeteria. Spencer heard her call her Lauren, but the only other two Lauren's in the building don't attend this lunch period. They're in the lower classes.

"Remember the girl I was asking you about? That's her, that's Lauren." Emily says pointing across the quad to Lauren. She doesn't even take her eyes off of her. She's sort of afraid that if she did she'd disappear, and she'd had imagined it all. That seemed to be a reoccurring thing with her, the blonde disappearing on her. Son maybe she was a figment of Emily's imagination. She wondered was it possible to kiss a ghost.

"Are you talking about Alison?" Spencer asks in a confused tone. She follows Emily's finger line of direction and saw that it lead to Alison Dilaurentis. But she's not sure why Emily keeps calling her Lauren. Maybe she got her confused with someone else that she new.

Emily frowns in confusion then turns to face Spencer. What did she mean her name was Alison. "No, her name is Lauren." Emily argues.

Spencer lets out a scoff. "No, I'm pretty sure her name is Alison. Everyone in this town knows who she is, she's the mayors daughter." Spencer says as she dives into her lunch.

Emily shakes her head. That can't be right. She said her name was Lauren, her dad wasn't the mayor he was a drunk, he stayed at home while her mom worked. She had a brother and a sister. Her sister committed suicide, and her older brother died from a car crash. She's alone in her house. This is all the things that Lauren told her about her life. Was that all a lie?

"That can't be right. She told me her name was Lauren, she has a brother and a sister..." Emily starts to explain but she's cut off by Spencer who can see that everything Emily is saying is all false.

"Her name is Alison, and she doesn't have a brother and a sister she just has two brothers...well one brother who's a sophomore at Penn state, and the other one died from leukemia a couple years back." Spencer explains with a frown on her face. "It was heartbreaking, I remember attending the funeral." Spencer says before looking away from Emily, to continue to eat her food. It was a small town everyone knows everyone, so when someone dies the entire town attends the funeral.

Emily's lost her appetite. And her stomach can't seem to want to hold the food that she did digest. She feels sick to her stomach, she can't believe she hasn't puked yet. Emily can't believe that Lauren...well Alison, lied to her. She feels shocked and hurt all at the same time. Everything that they've shared was a lie. The connection they had was a lie. Their new found friendship was a lie.

And it breaks Emily's heart more than watching her parents first fight did.

Just then 'Lauren' looks up and makes eye contact with Emily.

Lauren's eyes widen and she drops the fork in her hand, unable to process anything besides shock. She can't believe

She's running into Emily, not here anyways. No matter how much she knew this was such a small town, and her Emily had to run into each other at some point in time. She even knew it was a strong possibility that Emily might even go to the same school as her, she still prayed to whatever God there was that they didn't.

But as always, God doesn't answer her prayers, instead he hears them and spits in her face.

She catches the look in Emily's eyes and knows there's no way in hell that Emily won't approach her and cause a scene, so she quickly excuses herself from her table before she takes off out the cafeteria door, ignoring the curious looks from her friends.

Emily who watches her retreating form in shock finally finds her brain and jumps up from the lunch table, banging her knee in the process. "Fuck!" She mutters as she gets up ignoring Spencer calling her name.

When she gets to the hallway, she spots 'Lauren' leaning against the row of lockers. When 'Lauren' sees Emily emerge from the cafeteria she quickly takes off in the other direction, in a light jog.

"Lauren wait!" Emily yells as she chases after her in the empty hallway, but Alison keeps running, even though she hears Emily's voice begging her to stop.

She can't focus on anything else, nothing other than the feeling of her life being over. If Emily now knows the real her, she can tell all her friends about what Alison gets up to at night. If her dad finds out then he'd kill her, like literally kill her. She'd tarnish the good name of her family and they would become the scandal of the century not to mention the laughing stock of the town. They'd have to move and find new identities, except for Alison of course, because she'd be dead.

"Alison!" She hears Emily's scream as she reaches the end of the hall. She stops dead in her tracks then turns around to face Emily, her eyes brimming over with tears. That was the first time Emily had said her real name, but she said it with so much hurt and anger that she had to stop. She knew she couldn't run from her demons forever. So Alison stands there as still as can be. She doesn't move or makes eye contact with Emily, she just stares down at her feet.

Emily takes this as her cue to move closer, but she does so with hesitant steps. "Please don't run away from me." She pleads. "Please..."

Her last statement is just a whisper but somehow Alison still hears her. This causes her to look up. "Why-what are you doing here?" Alison's asks angrily.

The heat in her words shock Emily, but not enough to stop her in her tracks. "I got to school here." She says with a scoff. "Did you honestly think we wouldn't run into each other outside of all of that? Why did you lie to me?" Emily asks once she steps in front of Alison.

"You're not supposed to be here." Alison says, her face morphing into something of despair. Emily cannot be here, not at this school, not in this part of her life. She serves to much as a risk.

"Why did you lie to me?" Emily asks again through clenched teeth. Her anger is getting the best of her, but she has her fathers temper, and she's three seconds away from ripping down the posters off the wall, but she also has her mothers patience...but she wonders where did she get her naivety from, because she really can't believe she fell for all Alison lies. These thoughts causes a surge of panic as Emily grips Alison's arms holding her in place. "Please tell me why did you lie to me?...was everything we shared a lie?" And Emily has to bite the inside her jaw to stop the tears from spilling over. She doesn't want to look weak, she wants to look strong. And she definitely doesn't want to cry over this girl.

"I had to...I didn't want to lie but if I told you the truth then you would have known who I was and I couldn't risk it getting out..." Alison's says shaking her head as tears fell freely from her eyes. She hates the look that Emily is giving her right now. Like she betrayed her.

"I wouldn't have said anything..." Emily defends softly. She wants to really be angry with the blonde but she can't. Looking down at her broken form breaks her heart and Emily refuses to break her anymore.

Alison wipes her tears and steps away from her. "You don't get it...I can't be weak here...and when you're around I feel vulnerable. I don't want to feel that way. Not here." Alison says with as much strength as she can muster.

"I don't want you to be weak either Lauren...I won't allow you to be. I thought we were being strong for each other. How can we do that when everything you said was a lie...I had to find out from someone here- hell even your name was a lie!" Emily almost yells out, but remembers that they are just a few feet away from the cafeteria. That could cause a scene. But to her defense the word lie was getting to her. When she would think of the blonde she would think: adventurous, safe, exciting, beautiful...but all those words were replaced with just one and that was lier. It made her sick to her stomach.

"It wasn't really a lie..." Alison mutters as she looks down. "My name is Alison Lauren Dilaurentis...I didn't make up a name I just didn't give you my first name." She finally looks up, her eyes seem almost puppyish.

Emily softens at her and her words. "It's still a lie Alison..." she lets out a sigh, because she tired of arguing. Tired of standing here and looking at this girl so brokenly. She doesn't want to see that. She wants to the Alison that was laughing in the cafeteria at whatever jokes were being said. She doesn't want to see Alison crying over her or anything else. And maybe Alison was right, maybe outside of there special spot they can't be together. Especially if it makes her this sad. "Look, I get it okay? You were scared...you didn't know me...you didn't know how much you can trust me. But look at me." She says cupping the sides of Alison's face. "I won't tell your secrets. Whatever happens at our place stays there. I don't want to see you broken Lauren...just...just please don't lie to me. We can talk more at our spot tonight."

Alison heart flutters at the mention of 'our' when Emily refers to her special spot. Because ever since yesterday she has been thinking of that spot as something special for her and Emily. "Why do you keep calling me Lauren if you know my real name?" Alison asks curiously.

"Because that's the name you gave me...and I'll continue to call you that until introduce yourself to me by another name." Emily says with a cheesy smile, hoping to break some of the tension Alison built up.

And it works because Alison gives her a real smile. "Thank you for keeping this between us." She says sincerely.

Emily just shakes her head as she tucks a piece of hair behind Alison's ear. "Thank me by showing up tonight." She can see the scared look in Alison eyes and she has a strong feeling the blonde wants to run away, but she won't let her. She's not going to let her.

Alison nods her head in agreement before she reaches up to kiss Emily gently on the lips, hoping to bring a smile to the girls face. Which it does. "I have to go..." Alison mutters as she gently pulls out of Emily grip and walks away.

Emily is rooted to her spot as she watches her leave. She stuffs her hands in her pocket but doesn't move until Alison is out of sight. She turns and walks back towards the cafeteria where students are now filing out of it because the bell is about to ring.

Spencer emerges from the door caring Emily's backpack in her hand as well as her own books and materials as well. "Hey!" She says approaching Emily with a concerned look on her face. "Are you okay? You kind of just jetted out of there."

Emily takes her bag from Spencer with an appreciative smile. "Yeah I'm fine now. Just thought I saw someone I knew." She explains. Even though it's a lie it rings true to an extent.

"Okay." That's all Spencer offers as she and Emily walks towards their next class. "So tonight I was thinking we could have a study jam at my house? I have like three test tomorrow and I can definitely use a study buddy." She offers. She doesn't really need a study partner, she just wants to see what type of friendship does she have with the new girl. Outside of school she doesn't really have time to be social but she was hoping that she can change all that, staring with Emily.

"Uh tonight's not really good. But if you want, we can hang out Friday? Maybe catch a movie?" Emily offers as an alternative. She watches Spencer's face light up.

"Uh yeah...that'd be great." Spencer says trying to contain her smile. The last time she's been to the movies was...well she's never actually been to the movies before. "Well I better go I have to be early for Chemistry if I want to get the good test tube beaker." She says giving Emily a small wave before she takes off.

Emily watches her skip off with an amused smile on her face. You'd think the girl has never been on any social outing before.

But Emily thoughts doesn't stay on Spencer for to long. They quickly drift back to tonight...she couldn't wait to meet up with 'Lauren' and finally get to know her has a person. She has questions and she needs answers. And she plans on getting them tonight.

The rest of the day goes by in a blur. The information she learned in class seemed to blend together and walking home with Aria wasn't as bad as it was the first day. Sure she wouldn't shut up talking but Emily had other things on her mind to drown out her voice. She even tuned out her parents arguing at the dinner table. Instead of storming out dramatically like she did yesterday she simply finished her meal in silence and excused herself from the table, it wasn't like they noticed anyways. After dinner she found herself crawling out of her window and down the gutter shaft. And she quickly ran all the way to the bridge to the waiting blonde.

Except she wasn't there waiting. But Emily guessed that she was early so she waited. She walked over and leaned against the railing of the bridge, staring out at the water. And then one hour turned into two then three, then four.

And Emily thought she felt her heart break because she knew that this could only mean one thing...she wasn't coming.


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay, so before you read this I want to apologize for the late update last week/This week. From now on if I don't post exactly on Thursday, please give me a two day grace period. The latest I will ever post this fic is Friday morning. Now for the real reason you will hate me. This episode is rated M, but not for Emison. But please know it's apart of the fic and Emison is endgame unless you decide otherwise. Please read with an open mind. :)**

 **Yellow Paint**

 **Episode 4: Turn Right.**

She never showed and Emily's sure her heart will never heal. It hurts really bad. Shes never opened to someone so freely just to be shut down. She's never felt this type of rejection before, but she refuses to cry about it. She does however blow through an entire pack of cigarettes. On her way over to her destination she had to stop at the 24 hour mart to buy three more packs. Even though she's not of age yet, the guy behind the counter is her age, so she gives him a pretty smile and he allows her to buy two and get one free.

Once Emily reaches her destination she knocks on the door. It's really late...like so late that they could mistake her for attempting to break in, especially in this neighborhood, but she needs to feel better. She really needs to feel better.

Spencer swings the door open, a surprised look on her face. "Emily...? Hey, what are you doing here so late." She asks in confusion. It's almost 12:30 and it's a school night. Most people are sleeping, but she guesses Emily isn't one of those people.

Emily just shrugs. "I remembered your offer of coming over to help you study..." she trails off with a shrug again. "And I was in the neighborhood." She says lamely. She wasn't really in the neighborhood. The bridge is about ten miles from here and she lives another five miles away, the other way. She just really needed a shoulder right now and she wasn't in the moos to go home to her parents fighting tonight.

"Uh okay." Spencer says and opens the door allowing Emily to step inside and out of the wintery night. "My parents aren't here right now, they flew to D.C. For a conference." She says as she leads Emily through her house and towards her bedroom.

Emily takes in her surroundings. The house is huge. It's beautiful too. A lot of expensive things. But in Emily's opinion it looks more like a museum than a home. "You have any brothers or sisters?" Emily asks for conversation.

"Yes. But Melisa is at Harvard. So in the house no, I'm in only child." Spencer opens her bedroom door and allows Emily to enter first. She shuts the door and leans against it, taking in the girls physic. She noticed it the first day she met Emily that she was incredibly beautiful. She also was incredibly mysterious, she's sure that adds to her beauty.

Emily oblivious to Spencer starring makes her way around the room, checking out the various nicknacks and trophies lining the girl wall. She has everything from perfect attendance awards to decathlon, all the way to field hockey. The girl was an over achiever, Emily respected that, she took on a lot of responsibility and still managed to wake up in the morning with a smile. "Damn Spencer you're like some walking super computer. You're like perfect or something." She comments, but doesn't realize the blush she's caused on Spencer's face. "So what were you doing before I got here? Why are you still up?" Emily asks as she faces the girl.

Spencer hesitated for a moment before she walks over and sits on her bed. The question itself is simple, 'what was she doing before Emily came?' "I was studying for my French exam." She answers, tucking one leg underneath herself. 'Why can't she go to sleep?' Well that's the question that she can't just quite answer.

Emily nods her head, giving Spencer a small smile. Emily really admires how smart she is. She wish she was that smart, maybe she would go to college and make something more of herself. Swimming was Emily's way of getting into college. She had multiple offers. She could have gotten a full ride maybe if went pro, but when her parents started fighting she just...stopped. She didn't care about the awards or college anymore. She just didn't love it anymore. And then she started smoking, so she's 100% sure she's ruined her lungs. But she doesn't care, she doesn't care about anything.

But that's not true, because she did care about something...or should she say someone. And in the last two days she's felt more happy and anxious about the blonde girl more than she has in the last year or two. But then the blond just had to go and fuck it up. She had to hurt Emily's feelings. Emily swallows back the bile that's rising in her throat and forces a smile at Spencer, who's staring at her in concern.

"Are you okay?" Spencer asks. She was staring at Emily as a dark look came over her face. Spencer watched as Emily's eyes watered then hardened and now she has a blank expression on her face. It was scary.

Emily clears her throat and nods her head yes. "Yeah, I'm fine." She turns and continues to look around the room.

"How did you know where I lived?" Spencer asks confused. She doesn't remember telling the girl her address.

"When you told me about that Alison girl's dad being the mayor, I googled him, and then I saw that your mom was the state senator. This is a small town and everyone knows everyone. Your house might as well be public records." Emily turns to look at Spencer with a frown. "Sorry if that's creepy. I just really needed to see you and I realized I didn't have your number...so I just came." Emily explains. It really was as simple as googling her. She just asked the guy behind the counter at the 24 hour mart did he know where the senator lived and he gave her clear directions on how to get Spencer's house.

Spencer's not shocked at this news. Of course it's easy to find out where she lived the town is small that if your a little unusual or somehow lived wealthier than the others around you, you stick out like a sore thumb. But then she remembers Emily's words and her heart flutters a little. The girl really wanted to see her. But why? "Why did you need to see me?" Spencer asks confused.

Emily shrugs. "Well you're the only other person I know...besides Aria and Caleb, and honestly I don't consider them my friends." Emily says honestly as she walks over and sits on Spencer's bed.

Spencer couldn't help but smile. "We're friends now?" She asks teasingly. She feels special again, because Aria and Caleb are both really popular. Well they're unusual for popular kids. Like Aria dresses weird, which makes her stick out but she's so sweet that everyone just loves her. And Caleb is the captain of the football team, the ultimate jock. In yet he's alternative in his style as well. Choosing to be a bad boy instead of running with his flock. Yet everyone still loves him. And with both of those cool options Emily still chose to come to her instead of them. It's nice having friends. Spencer is considered unusual but in a different way. She's the smartest girl in school, one of the most athletic, so she knows plenty of people. But she runs her life like a schedule of a politician. Hell she barely gets any sleep. But she likes Emily, she likes how the girl doesn't try to force things to happen. She just sort of fits in Spencer's life wherever she can. Like just as simple as sitting with her in the lunch room and walking with her in the hallways. Never demanding Spencer make other time for her. Even if she just met her, Spencer can see this blossoming into a really good friendship.

Emily gives a teasing smile of her own. "Of course we are...I shared my sandwich with you remember." She nudged Spencer and the girl lets out a laugh. And Emily chooses this moment to take in her appearance. And it's no doubt that Spencer is beautiful. But she's not the beautiful that smacks you in the face. No her beauty is much more elegant. The type of beauty that makes you do a double take when her head is tossed back and she's in mid laughter. The type of beauty that you swoon over when she gently rests her hand on her shoulder and smiles at you. Emily looks down at her hands because she somehow suddenly feels shy looking at Spencer.

Spencer herself frowns in confusion. Emily is acting so bizarre tonight. First she shows up here at midnight then she tears up, and now she's...blushing. "Are you okay Emily?" Spencer asks again. She's worried about her new friend. She seems to be having a whirlwind of emotions inside her body right now and she really wishes she can help the girl.

Emily bites her lip gently and nods her head. "Yeah...I will be." and as Emily looks behind Spencer she notices something unusual. She reaches over and grabs the bottle on Spencer's night stand. "What the hell is this?" she asks confused. She turns the bottle over and reads the label. "Why are you taking this?" She asks confused. It's Methamphetamine (speed). Emily's heard of kids using it to help with their ADHD but she also know that people use it to stay alert. People become addicted. But she didn't think that Spencer had ADHD.

Spencer freezes at the question. She didn't expect Emily to come over so she didn't exactly hide it. When she began taking on her work load her, dad bought her those pills to help her cope with her everyday to day life. She's only been taking them for a couple months though...but still she knows that she needs them. Especially if she wants to stay on top. "It's nothing." She says taking the pill bottle away from Emily, she puts it into her night stand.

"It's not nothing. Spencer those things could kill you." Emily says slightly angrily. She wouldn't have expected something like that from Spencer. She respected her.

So she can't help but feel a little disappointed.

"Don't you think I know that?" Spencer asks through clenched teeth. "It's prescribed to me for a reason. I'm taking the correct dosage. I'm going to be fine. Trust me." Spencer says resting a hand on Emily's shoulder. But Spencer leaves out the detail that her sister is engaged to a doctor and that's why Spencer gets free refills. She didn't need them, but now she really needs them.

Emily studies her for a moment. She knows that the girl is lying, she just doesn't want to fight her on it. So she takes a deep breath preparing to drop the subject. "Just...just promise me you won't go over bored okay?" Emily pleads. She likes the brunette and she wouldn't want anything bad happening to her.

Spencer nods her head rapidly. "Yeah, of course I promise." and then she does something uncharacteristic and pulls Emily into a tight hug. She doesn't know why but something about the girl getting really worked up over her wellbeing felt nice. Her family certainly doesn't care or they wouldn't have given her the pills, they would have told her to stop overwhelming herself. But just from one look in Emily's eyes she could see the concern, the fear, and whatever else caring emotion that flashed through her eyes. Spencer pulls away to avoid holding on for to long. She didn't want it to get awkward.

Once they pull out of each other's arms, they're still within close proximity of each other, Emily rests her forehead against Spencer's. Like she told Alison before being with people comforts her. Being held comforts her. That was her sole reason for seeking the brunette out. She needed to be held, or at least...Emily leans in and kisses Spencer softly on the lips. And they taste different from Alison's. Where Alison's were soft and sweet, Spencer's were slightly more firm. Where she felt content with Alison, all she feels is desperation from Spencer. And not from Spencer because she knew that she was the desperate one. She was desperate to make this kiss work. It was a very nice kiss, but it just wasn't working. Emily was becoming frustrated. She pulls back from Spencer to see the girl still has her eyes closed. "I'm sorry..." she mutters, her eyebrows dipping down in concentration. "I shouldn't have kissed you."

Spencer finally opens her eyes after a moment. She couldn't help but frown herself, hers more so steaming from confusion. It was her first kiss...well not technically, her first kiss was from a guy named Andrew Campbell, but they were in the third grade and it was for a school play. So she doubted that counted, and even if it did, she damn sure didn't count it. But this kiss, she's sure that it counts. But she's still confused as to why did it happen. And why did her heart leap in her throat when it did. Spencer shakes her head to focus on what happening now. She just gives Emily a shrug as she looks down at her hands. "I don't know...it wasn't bad. I just want to know why you did it?" Spencer asks softly.

This time it's Emily's turn to shrug. "I just wanted to feel better..." Emily says. She know it's sounds stupid but it really did use to help her back in Texas.

Spencer frowns at her. "Does kissing people really help?" She asks. She found it interesting to see Emily coping mechanism.

"Normally it does." Emily admits, because right now she still feels pretty crappy.

Spencer takes a deep breath giving herself all the courage in the world before she leans in and kisses Emily again. This time with a little bit more passion than the first one, and Emily instinctively responds to the kiss. The meeting of their lips was stirring the pot and both of their stomachs. But Spencer had never experienced anything like this before. She's never been intimate with anyone else and she didn't have time for self pleasure. It was something that never crossed her mind, even when guys would make jokes at her that she was to up tight and needed to get laid, she'd just give them the finger and go about her day. But now as Emily's lips is on hers and her tongue sliding inside of her mouth she could feel her pleasure boiling to the surface and she wants so bad to act on it.

And apparently so does Emily, because within seconds she's moved Spencer into a laying position, so she can climb on top of her. Spencer's legs fall open on either side of her and she can hear the soft sigh that comes out of Spencer's mouth as she rests between her legs, more than likely adding pressure to her sensitive area. The kiss heats up, and even if Emily doesn't feel comfort from the kiss like she felt with Alison, she surely does feel the rage going on inside her. She feels hot all over and even though the kiss wasn't what it should be, it was nice. Nice enough for Emily to get turned on, and for her to feel the need to take Spencer, in every which way possible. Emily quickly begins to slide her jacket off, and with some help from Spencer it's tossed somewhere in the room. She reaches up and grips Spencer's neck as the kiss picks up.

Spencer, who has never been in this type of situation before, doesn't know what to do with herself. She knows they should stop before it goes to far but just from a kiss with Emily she's losing her mind, she can only imagine what would happen if she went all the way. If she was to stop now she assumes that she'd experience the female version of what guys call blue balls. Unconsciously she seeks out relief as she lifts her hips to rub her sensitive area against Emily. She groans at the contact and pulls her head back no longer able to participate.

Emily takes a moment to stare down at Spencer, her face frozen in pleasure. And Emily knows she should stop, but her libido has kicked in and she has to give this girl some form of pleasure. Maybe she'd finally feel better if she did. So Emily grinds her hips down and Spencer's lets out a loud squeal at the sensation. Emily moves begins leaving trails of kisses along the her neck and Spencer can no longer control the sounds that slip out of her mouth. "Fuck..." she mutters when Emily begins kissing behind her ear.

If Emily didn't move faster, Spencer was going to force her own hand down her shorts. But of course Emily can read minds because Spencer feels Emily's hand traveling down her body. She stops at the hem of her shirt and helps guide it over Spencer's head, tossing it out of sight. And soon all of Spencer's clothes are stripped off. And Emily wastes no time moving her hand between her legs rubbing the slickness of her heat. Spencer hisses at the friction and rotates her hips in time with the movements from the other girl.

"Fuck Em..." and at those words Emily pushes two fingers into the girls entrance.

Spencer, who has never felt anything invade her like this tenses at the intrusion. She's grateful that Emily waits until she adjusts before she starts moving her fingers again.

Emily just stares down at Spencer in awe as the girl face contorts in pleasure. It's like Spencer has never felt anything like this before the way she's clawing at her back and biting her lip. Of course she knows how pleasurable sex can be, but with Spencer it has an innocence to it. So Emily speeds up her motions and Spencer tosses her head back as her legs begin to shake.

Spencer feels an unfamiliar tightening in her stomach. She wants it to stop but at the same time keep it going...honestly she doesn't know what to feel right now. Her moans increase when she feels Emily encase her nipple in her mouth, adding to the sensational pleasure she's feeling. "Emily..." she moans out.

And Emily can feel how close Spencer is, so she takes her thumb and rubs vigorously over Spencer's clit, causing Spencer's back to arch up and a string of explicit curses to fly out of her mouth. Emily can feel Spencer's grip on her tighten as she feels fingernails dig into her back. Then she feels Spencer tighten around her fingers, so she curls them, hitting that magical spot.

Spencer doesn't think she can take any more stimulation. The knot that was in the middle of her stomach is now pulling on her lungs making it harder for her to breath. But when Emily curls her fingers in time with stroking her clit, Spencer begins to see stars. "Oh fuck!...fuck!" She moans out, then times seems to freeze, before she finally comes undone. "Emily..." she moans out as she rides through her orgasm, her body convulsing.

Emily strokes begins to slow down as she avoids the clit altogether. She watches as Spencer body twitches through her recovery and then drops heavily on the bed. Emily leans down and kisses Spencer's forehead before the girl turns over, curling into herself, her body humming from her release. And Emily with a frown watches her, not really knowing what to do with herself.

Over an hour later Emily finds herself walking through the night time light. The best thing about Rosewood is how well lit the streets are, so she feels safer in the darkness. She takes out a cigarette, the one she's been craving since her time with Spencer, and lights it up.

As she continues her way down the well lit street, she slows to a stop when she recognizes the address of the house down the street from Spencer's. Emily didn't just ask the cashier for the senators house but the Mayors as well.

Emily stares up at the house. It's a nice size. Smaller than Spencer's but nice nonetheless. She wonders what room could be Alison's. More than likely she's probably in the front, that's how these type of things always work. The princess trapped in the castle always gets the front view, and Emily has to fight the urge to rescue her from the castle. She wants to demand answers to the questions that plague her brain.

Why isn't did the blond show up?

What is she scared of?

But Emily knows if she voices this, Alison won't answer she'd run, and Emily doesn't want that. So she turns on her heels and continues her trek home.

Her house is quiet and most people would assume that her parents are sleep. But she's not most people, she knows her dad is up waiting for her like he always is. When she enters the house she can see the lamp on in the living room.

She doesn't say anything but neither does he.

So she goes upstairs to her room and falls into a restless slumber, it even bothering to change her clothes.

The next morning when she awakens to her alarm and an uncharged phone, she knows the day is going to suck. So Emily takes a deep breath and begins her crappy morning routine.

Shower, getting dressed, no breakfast, take lunch from dad, and then off to school with Aria chatting away.

But when she gets to school she's not greeted with the sight of Spencer, in fact she doesn't see the girl anywhere. Which is odd because she's sure the girl gets to school an hour earlier than the teachers. But then her brain thinks back to the events from last night. Maybe it's been a while for the brunette, maybe last night left her feeling groggy so she's running a little late this morning. So maybe today was going to be full of small surprises, first the brunette not being on time and now...well now Alison Dilaurentis is currently staring at her from across the hall.

Emily frowns in confusion, then frustration as she turns and opens her locker, putting away and grabbing material needed for her classes.

Alison walks over and stands next to Emily's locker. Waiting patiently as she gathers her books.

Emily notices Alison's presence but chooses to ignore her. She stuffs her things into her bag and slam her locker shut.

"You're pissed." Alison observes. Obviously she's pissed, she stood her up. Alison would be pissed to if she was Emily.

"Pissed doesn't even scratch the surface of what I'm feeling right now Lauren." Emily says moving pass her.

"Can you at least hear me out before you go and write me out of your life?" Alison ask as she follows behind Emily, whispering the words harshly so no one around them would hear.

Emily stops abruptly then spins around on her heels, causing Alison to collide into her. "You wrote me out of your life the second you didn't show up last night. I waited for hours and you never came!" Emily says angrily. She's trying to keep her emotions under control. Normally that's not hard to do but when it comes to the blond she feels so much and she doesn't know why.

"I'm sorry okay, but I couldn't show up...I just... I can't risk being there anymore... not when you know so much about me." Alison answers honestly. Truth was she found herself in a tough spot last night. Questioning herself on whether to go or not. Ultimately she made the decision that it was too risky but nonetheless she regretted not showing up. She didn't want to see Emily's face, like she is now.

"So that's it..?" Emily asks softly. "You've made your decision before you even gave me a chance to prove you wrong. I haven't told anyone about our meetings...people don't even know I know you." Emily says looking around the nearly empty hallway. The people who are standing around, aren't really paying attention to them anyways so Emily doesn't whisper like Alison is doing, she also doesn't care what these people think of her. She's upset and she doesn't care if the world knew it.

Alison sighs and looks away from Emily. A large part of her knows she can trust Emily, but the smaller part is the one that controls her actions. She's so terrified of what would happen if her dad found out about her sneaking out of the house.

Emily studies Alison for a moment before her demeanor softens. She softly grips Alison's chin and guides her face to meet her own. "I don't want to pressure you. Obviously this is a bigger deal to you than I'm making it out to be. So how about I give you some space...and when you're ready to talk to me, I'll be waiting." Emily promises with a weak smile.

Alison gazes back at her. She's trying to read her mind, to see if what Emily is saying is true. And she sees nothing but honesty in the girls eyes. It causes her a great sense of relief to have the girl's support in her decision to put some distance between them. "Thank you." She says softy. And she means it.

Emily bites her bottom lip for a moment debating whether to give the blond comfort but she decides against it. It's

not the time nor place. Even though Emily could really use it. So instead she just releases Alison's chin and takes a step back. "See you around Lauren." She says turning on her heels and heading towards her class, leaving a curious Alison behind.

Emily is just a warm body in her classes. She can't force herself to pay attention to the material being presented. Her mind still so lost on the blond haired beauty.

She couldn't figure out why Alison was so scared. It didn't make any sense. There was no risk as far as Emily was concerned. They weren't doing anything wrong besides talking. But with the blond ignoring her, it hurt. It's been a while since Emily's had a connection with anyone after her parents started fighting. When the going got rough she closed herself off from the world. The affect was almost instantaneous. She felt alone and scared and there was nothing she wanted to do to change that. But when she met Alison everything was different. It felt good opening up and allowing herself to feel something for someone else. Even if it's not romantic feelings. She still thought of Alison as a potential close friend. And it sucks that it's changed.

By the time Emily finished hashing her thoughts out she didn't realize that she had walked through three of her classes all zombified. She doesn't remember anything, she doesn't even remember transitioning classrooms. The bell rings and she finds herself standing in the hallway as the kids rush around her getting to their next class.

She spots Spencer at her locker, just staring blankly into it.

Emily frowns in confusion then slowly walk over to her. "Spence...hey." She says cautiously.

Spencer tries to be discreet as she wipes the tear from her eye and quickly grabs her books slamming her locker closed. "Hey Em." She says attempting to move pass Emily as fast as she can. Being around the raven haired girl is causing her more distress and she was planning on avoiding her as much as possible.

"Spencer wait." Emily says grabbing her arm forcing her to remain there. "What's wrong?" She asks curiously.

"I really wish you wouldn't ask me that." Spencer mutters.

Emily frowns in confusion. "Why not?"

"Because then it would imply that you don't know." Spencer says turning to give Emily a hateful glare.

Emily takes a small step back. "I'm sorry for whatever I did, but..."she starts but doesn't finish because she really can't remember if she did anything to Spencer. She hasn't seen her all morning so she doesn't know what she could have... Emily lets out a frustrated breath now she gets it. "It's about last night isn't it?" She asks knowingly.

"Thank you for finally tuning in." Spencer says sarcastically as she tries to move pass her again.

"Spencer stop!" Emily says in a frustrated tone as she grabs the girl's arm again only to have it ripped out of her grasp. Emily puts her hands up in defense, showing her retreat. "Did I hurt you or something?" Emily asks in a soft voice. She would hate to have caused the brunette physical harm. She knew her actions were a little rough but she didn't think it would make Spencer hate her in the morning.

Spencer scoffs. "You didn't even stick around long enough to find out...I woke up and you were just gone." She says shaking her head at Emily in disappointment.

Emily frowns. "I woke up and I heard your parents coming home so I went out the window. I wasn't trying to get you into trouble." Emily lies. The truth is, the second Spencer fell asleep, she left. She wasn't used to snuggling into bed with someone and she was very uncomfortable with Spencer's need to cuddle after. So she replaced her body with a pillow and she ran out the door. She didn't think this would be the consequence in the morning.

Spencer throws her hands up in exasperation. "You couldn't have left a note or something? Even a morning text would have been okay." Spencer's becoming angry and when she gets angry she becomes irrational with her thinking. "Anything would have been better than what you did."

Emily senses the change in Spencer's body language. She went from sad to angry in a matter of seconds. And Emily notices that every time she opens her mouth she makes her situation worse. She sighs and steps back. "I don't know what you want me to say." She says honestly.

Spencer's shoulders deflates and her eyes start to water. "Why'd you do it?" She asks softly.

Emily frowns again, and looks down at her shoes. "I told you yesterday that I just wanted to feel something..." she says honestly again, but she doesn't expect the sting that rips across her cheek from Spencer's hand. When she brings her own hand up to her face she realized that yes, Spencer just slapped her. It isn't the first time that a girl has went ape shit on her. But it is the first time that it's mattered.

"Did you feel that!" Spencer all but yells in her face. "You took something from me and just abandoned me afterwards. So the only thing I'm feeling right now is regret...and since you can't feel anything other physical touch, I hope that brought a lot of feelings for you." Spencer says angrily before successfully storming pass Emily, making sure to slam into her shoulder with her on as she does.

Emily watches Spencer storm away. She doesn't even attempt to follow her. Emily knew the ramifications of her actions before she did it; someone would catch feelings or someone would get really hurt there was no way around it. It just sucks that Spencer was the one to get hurt.

Emily lightly kicks a locker before she turn on her heels and storms into her class.

She was hating this day already.

By the time swim class rolled around, Emily didn't even walk by the pool room, she went straight outside behind the bleachers. To her surprise Caleb was already sitting there waiting for her, this time he was dressed in his football uniform.

"Nice monkey suit." Emily comments as she makes her way over to him.

Caleb turns around with a smirk. "That's what most people call a suit and tie." He retorts back not even hiding his smirk.

"I don't really see guys in suits jumping on top of each other like a bunch of monkeys." Emily says before sitting down

next to him. "Besides you guys get told what to do more than they do..." she defends.

Caleb rolls his eyes before offering Emily a cigarette. "I don't think that's the point of the analogy." He says lighting up his own cigarette.

Emily just shrugs before she lights the one he gave her. "So, why are you hiding under the bleachers instead of out there practicing?" She asks curiously. She's been thinking about how weird it was for quite sometime, she's been itching to ask him this question.

Caleb puffs his cigarette and smiles. "I don't even want to play football. My dad makes me. And because apparently I'm the only guy in this school that can throw a ball 40 yards they made me the starting QB. People take this stupid sport way to serious and we're not even that good. This team sucks...and so does the coach; and in five years his belly is going to be touching the ground and that patch in the back of his head will have become the size of a grapefruit. Now, would you really want to take orders from someone like that?" Caleb asks blowing out a string of smoke.

Emily smiles at his reasoning. "I happened to like his beer belly...it's sort of sexy." She says playfully.

Caleb laughs. "Fuck, I should have known that you were kinky like that." He jokes back.

"What can I say we all like weird shit." Emily retorts back before taking a puff of her smoke again. They both turn to look at each other before bursting into a fit of laughter.

Caleb is the first to compose himself as he finishes cigarette, tossing it on the ground and stomping it out. "I better get back before the coach notices me gone again. He told my dad yesterday that I've been missing from practice lately and he was not happy. So I'm sure security will be extra tight today. You might want to get out of here before the security does a sweep of this place." Caleb warns before standing up and placing on his helmet.

"How do I look?" He asks placing both hands on his hips in a pose.

Emily squints her eyes a she looks up. "Like a blue monkey." She comments jokingly.

Caleb just gives her a thumbs up before he takes off towards the field.

Emily watches as he joins his teammates and begins warming up with them. She hears noise coming from behind her, and when she turns to look she spots he security coming her way. They haven't noticed her yet so she puts out her cigarette and flees back inside the building.

But then she realizes that she has no where to go so she does the only thing she can think of and walks inside the pool area.

Everyone's doing the same thing they do every time she peaks inside. Swimming in the pool, hanging out it in the bleachers. Most of the kids don't seem to notice her, and the ones that do just give her a glance before turning away. Emily sits on the bleachers and hopes that the class would end without her being noticed but of course that's ever possible.

"Are you suppose to be in here?" She sees an African American woman approach her with a clipboard in her hand.

"Yes, I'm Emily Fields." Emily says.

The lady looks down at her clipboard and nods. "Ahh yes Mrs. Emily Fields...it says right here you were supposed to start on Wednesday...that was two days ago. Care to explain what happened?" She asks.

Emily looks around to see all eyes turned on them. She lets out a sigh, she really did hate being the center of attention. "I got lost." She says with a shrug.

The lady just smirks and marks something down on her clipboard. "Okay Dorthy, Im glad you've finally found the land oz, now lets make sure you make it to class for the rest of the days to come. Now go suit up." The lady directs.

"Uh actually I'm not feeling to good...Im feeling a bit...queasy. I think I'm just going to sit this one out." Emily says, grabbing her stomach for emphasis.

The lady smirks again and marks something else down on her clipboard. "Okay Fields, you can sit out today but starting next week you're getting into the pool. By the way you can call me coach Fulton, just like everyone else does." Coach Fulton says walking away.

Emily mentally thanks whatever being there is that she can change her class come next week. She doesn't want to get into the pool and she'll do anything in her power to avoid doing so.

Emily watches as all the students jump in and out of the pool. The time in this class seems to go by much slower than the rest. She's starting to wish that she'd just got caught by the security guards and taken to the principal.

"Hey." Emily hears a voice interrupts her thoughts. She looks up to see a guy and a girl standing in front of her. The guy is pretty tall, has dark hair and piercing blue eyes. And his lips are really pink and the encase teeth that are incredibly white. "I'm Noel...and this is Paige." He says referring to the girl standing on the side of him. She's taller than him and has pale skin with round eyes. She's pretty though, Emily can't deny that. "You're new here right?" He asks.

Emily refrains from rolling her eyes as she nods her head. "Yeah, I'm Emily." She introduces herself. Boy people in this town sure do love to tell you who they are.

Noel smiles charmingly. "Well I just really wanted to introduce myself. I know how hard it is to be new, so hopefully this makes you feel a little bit better. And if you ever need anything...don't hesitate to ask." He says warmly.

The girl Paige, who's behind him just rolls her eyes. "Okay, you've introduced yourself, can we finish swimming now?" She asks with a sigh.

Emily nods hers head slowly before looking over to the girl Paige. That same welcome surely doesn't stand the same with her. "Well thank you...Noel was it?" She asks and he nods his head in the positive. "I'll be sure to take you up on that offer."

Noel's smile widens as he turns to face Paige, then motioning for her to leave. Once they're slightly out of ear shot. "Don't be rude." He mutters taking her hand.

Emily watches as he leads her over to the pool. _Hmm they must be dating_... Emily thinks, as she makes herself more comfortable leaning back against the bleachers.

Soon enough the bell rings dismissing them and Emily finds herself wandering into the lunch room. She doesn't see any sign of Spencer so she guesses that the brunette is still mad at her. So Emily makes herself over to the empty table and pulls out her lunch. She's okay with eating alone, but that doesn't mean she doesn't miss the presence of the brunette.

The day flies by and soon Emily finds herself walking home with Aria again the short girl chatting away. And boy could that girl talk.

when they make it to the crossroads between their houses Emily gives Aria a small smile before she turns to leave.

"Oh and Emily before I forget, I wanted to extend the invitation of hanging out with me and my friends tonight. We're having a bond fire on the beach...it's going to be so much fun." Aria says excitedly.

Emily considers the offer for a moment. It sounds fun but she doesn't really want to spend the night out with a bunch of people she doesn't really know. "Uh I appreciate the offer, but I don't know if it's a good idea." Emily answers honestly.

Aria pouts slightly. "Aww come on, please give it a try." She pleads slightly. She really wants to get to know Emily. The raven haired girl is always so quiet and passive that she doesn't know anything about her besides her parents name. Even when they walk to school together she barely gets a word out of her. She thinks if Emily could just hang out with her outside of walking back and forth to school then they would become close friends.

Emily sighs and looks around the empty street desperately begging for a distraction. "Okay..." is all she says.

Aria face lights up. "Really?" She asks bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. "Okay well I'll pick you up around 7:30. It's a bit of a drive to get there." She says walking backwards. "See ya Em." Aria says excitedly before disappearing into her house.

Emily lets out a deep breath then turns and enters her house. And just like always when she returns home, her mom is in the kitchen cooking and her dad is in the living room watching the news. Emily forgoes giving them any sort of greeting as she jets up stairs to her room.

The afternoon goes by rather quickly and Emily finds herself disappointed. She was not looking forward to hanging out with Aria and her friends, especially if they were anything like the talkative brunette.

Aria comes to her door exactly at 7:30 on the dot and she greets her parents like she and Emily are best friends. Emily watches from the top of the stairs as her mothers smiles warmly at Aria and her dad standing beside her like they're just the perfect couple. Wayne's hand placed on the small of Pam's back as she leans comfortingly into his embrace.

It's such bullshit and Emily has to contain herself before she throws up at the sight. If only Aria knew how imperfect her 'perfect' little family was.

"Hey Emily." Aria greets with a smile, when she catches sight of Emily descending down the stairs with an overnight bag in her hand.

Emily watches as both her parents turn to stare at her with wide smiles on their face. She rolls her eyes at them in return. "You ready to go?" Emily asks as a response instead.

Aria looks a little taken aback before she replaces her frown with a smile. "Yeah, I'm packed and ready to go." She says moving to the side as Emily brushes pass her. "Bye Mr. And Mrs. Fields. I'll have her back tomorrow morning. Thanks again for letting her tag along." She announces, moving after Emily herself.

Emily's already sitting in the passenger seat with her seatbelt on. She didn't bother saying goodbye to her parents, even when they wave goodbye to her.

Aria frowns in confusion at Emily's actions towards her parents. The Fields seemed like really good people, she couldn't understand what would cause Emily to be so rude to her parents. But one thing that Aria wasn't was pushy, so unless Emily felt forthcoming with information she wasn't going to ask any questions. Instead she puts her car in reverse, sends one final wave to the Fields before she sets off on her journey to the beach.

The car ride was silent but lucky it was short, and soon Aria finds herself pulling into an empty spot next to four other cars.

Aria's the first out. She grabs a big basket full of blankets and snacks. "Okay so I must warn you, were used to it being just us out here, so if they seem a little weird and crazy, don't pay them any-mind they're just doing it for attention." Aria warns as they walk across the nearby secluded beach over to a group of waiting teenagers. The sun had already started setting, and sparkling across the lake water, but the faces of Aria's friend was illuminated by the camp fire that they were sitting around.

"Hi guys!" Aria greets cheerfully. She receives a handful of enthusiastic replies back. "Okay so I want you all to meet my new friend Emily. She just moved here from Texas so please be nice and show her a good time tonight." Aria says giving them all stern looks. She turns to face Emily, who's standing behind her with an unreadable expression her face. She coaxes the girl forward with an encouraging smile. "Emily I want to introduce you to the gang. This is Samara, Paige, Noel, Ben, Caleb and his girl friend Hanna, and Alison." She introduces everyone by pointing to them so Emily could follow along.

Emily gives them all handshakes to complete the introduction. Even though she could care less about meeting these people, her southern manners has cursed her with respect for others. When she gets to Alison they're eyes linger longer than Emily's did with the rest of them. She gives Alison a polite nod then drops her hand before it gets awkward. "Nice to meet you Alison." She says softly before turning her attention to the rest of the group, who seemed oblivious to their little shared moment.

"We've meet before." Noel announces with a wide grin.

"You have?" Aria asks confused. She's never seen them interact with each other during school hours.

"Yes." Paige speaks up with an irritated deep sigh. "We have swim class together." She doesn't understand what the big deal about this girl is. Everyone has been talking about her since she arrived, frankly she was sick and tired of hearing about this girl. She wasn't all that impressed with the tan girl.

"I didn't know you swim Emily." Aria says surprised. She honestly didn't think the girl was involved in any sports or recreational activities, the girl always seem so antisocial.

"I don't." Emily responds shortly. Giving Alison a brief glance as she recalls their first conversation, when she told the blond she didn't swim but she would jump after her.

"Oh..." Aria says with a confused frown. swimming was an elective you had to choose to have. Most people who had it, was on the Rosewood Swim team. She assumed Emily actually did swim, but if she didn't swim why did she choose that class.

"Wait, Noel...don't you have that class during fourth period, right before lunch?" Caleb asks from his seat, while giving Emily a small smirk. This is the first time he's spoken since Emily's walked up and just by the look on her face he can tell she'd rather swim out into that lake without a life vest.

"Yes, why?" Noel asks slightly confused.

Caleb shakes his head. "No reason." He says with a smirk aimed at Emily, and she shoots him a glare in return.

Aria frowns again. "Okay..." she trials off. She has a feeling that Caleb might know the Texan native as well but he's much more secretive than Noel so he's never tell. "So who's ready to get this party started?" Aria asks pulling out a bottle of Jack from the large basket she brought. The gang cheers loudly as she pops it open and begins pouring everyone shots.

Emily watches as everyone laughs and jokes. She takes a seat next to the blond girl they introduced her to as Samara. Pretty girl. She watches as Caleb leans between his girlfriends legs and they share a flask he pulled out of his leather jacket. Emily watches as the guy introduced as Ben tunes a guitar and plays around with the strings, and she watches as that Paige girl hangs on the arm of Noel as he does his best to ignore her and pay closer attention to Alison who looks like she's having the time of her life.

Emily frowns in thought. Every time she's seen the blond there has been a grey cloud hanging over her head, like the second she smiled it was going to rain on her parade. But every time she's with her friends she's the happiest person on the face of the planet. So either she's pretending to be in pain or she's pretending to be happy. Either way she's one hell of an actress. "Emily...?" A voice pulls her from her thoughts. Emily looks up to see Aria starring down at her in confusion and everyone staring at her expectantly. "I'm sorry what?" Emily asks.

"I asked if you wanted something to drink?" Aria asks again holding out a cup full of brown liquid for Emily to take.

Emily gives Aria a small smile as she excepts the drink. "Thanks." She mutters, taking a small sip from the cup. The liquid doesn't even burn as it makes its way down her throat. She's had to much experience with this liquid for it to cause her any pain. But she can't say the same for everyone, she watches as everyone drinks from their cups wincing when the the alcohol hits their tongues. Everyone but Alison, she's the only one without a drink in her hand. Emily frowns in confusion, she wonders why the blond doesn't drink.

"So Emily...tell us about yourself." Noel asks from across the campfire.

Emily hates this question. She takes a big gulp of the jack and prepares herself. "What do you want to know?" She asks.

Noel smirks then shrugs. "Anything I guess. Like why did you move here from Texas." He asks curiously.

Emily mentally sighs. Same ole question wants to know, but she supposes this is easier to answer than most questions. "Army brat, my dad got relocated." She simplifies, even though there's more to the story.

"Wow that must be rough." Noel says letting out a low. "You have any siblings?" He asks next.

And it truly is an innocent question, and if it was asked a year ago Emily would have answered it fast and honestly. But it's not last year, it's a brand new year and this year she does has a baby sibling coming into this world. But she's not here yet, so Emily can still pretend that she's an only child. "Yeah..." she answers.

"Cool. I always wanted to be an only child." Noel says with an encouraging smile.

Emily doesn't smile in return, instead she gives him a short head nod before she drains the rest of the liquid in her cup.

The party goes on and soon Ben has the group up dancing and singing along to the sound of his guitar. His skills are mediocre but to them he probably sounds like a god, seeing as though they're all drunk. After Emily's first drink she didn't partake in anymore alcohol and Alison seemed to be alcohol free for the night as well. Looks like they might be the DD's for the night.

Emily feels a warm body flop down beside her, and she knows it's not Samara nor Aria, because the two are up dancing together.

"I knew we'd meet again." Caleb says with a smirk.

Emily can smell the whiskey on his breath but he seems to be the only gentleman out of the group to control his tolerance. "Of course we were going to meet again. I just assumed it'd be in our spot under the bleachers." Emily says teasingly.

Caleb's eyes widen at Emily's blunt words. "You better not speak like that out-loud, my girl might think we've hooked up or something. Which I'm totally cool with people thinking by the way." He says with a wink. He knows Hanna isn't the jealous type. She has nothing to be jealous of, he'd never cheat on her, no matter how much he flirts. And she's the same way, they're a match made in heaven.

"She's shouldn't be worried about me hitting on you...you should be more worried about me taking her home." Emily teases.

Caleb rolls his eyes. "I'd be totally in to that if you made it a threesome." He adds a wink for good measure.

Emily tilts her head like she's considering it. "Sure. I'd love to have a threesome with Samara and Hanna. Who wouldn't love two blondes." She makes sure to leave Alison out of the blond joke. She doesn't feel right including her in something so sexual.

Caleb has to bite his lip to hold back his laugh. "Can I at least watch?"

"Your not even aloud thirty feet of the house." Emily retorts back quickly.

This time Caleb laughs as he and Emily watch his friends dance silly and act crazy.

"I would never have pictures you to hang out with these guys." Emily comments.

Caleb just shrugs. "They're not your regular rich popular kids like everyone at this school, they're inclusive. They don't judge. For instance Ben is gay...he was one of the first open gay guys at the school and everyone treated him like he was a walking infection. But not these guys, they included him in our group. Samara is a lesbian, Aria was too eccentric to fit in anywhere else, Paige is transgender, and Noels old-man is a deadbeat drunk, and I just felt more comfortable with them than anywhere else in this school." Caleb answers honestly. "But these are secrets that being on the inside of this group provides you with. No one knows how imperfect our perfect little group is."

Emily takes all this information in. From first glance this group just seemed like a bunch of preppy popular kids, but now they seem to have much more depth to them. She's actually impressed. "What about Alison?" Emily asks. She's interest in knowing if Alison's told them anything about herself. Any truth.

Caleb just shrugs. "I suppose she's just like me. Just liked this group. I mean she's the mayors daughter so even if she did have any secrets we wouldn't know about them. She's probably have us whacked or something." He jokes, but Emily can sense the undertone of truth in his words.

Emily doesn't respond again. She watches as Noel try to get Alison's attention. Whispering words in her ear that causes her to smile and laugh. That goes on for about 10 minute before Alison becomes silent and withdrawn from the group. Soon she's not saying anything at all. And moments after that she stands up and walks over to the water, everyone watches her go but know one gets up to follow after her.

"What's that about?" Emily asks curiously. Noel looks sad, even Paige looks concerned, but again no one gets up to go after her.

"She gets like that sometimes. It's best just leave her be...let her work through her issues on her own." Caleb says, taking the flask from his hand and drinking from it.

Emily debates whether or not to take his advice, but thinks better of it as she stands up and straightens out her clothes.

"What are you doing? Did you not listen to anything I just said?" Caleb asks shaking his head at her stubbornness.

Emily just hands him her empty cup. "Nope." She says walking away, following the path that Alison was taking along side the shore of the water. She had to walk a little ways away from the bonfire, where the light barely reaches. When she finally spots Alison, she's sitting on the sand, her feet resting at the tip of the water.

"I had a feeling you would follow me." Alison says without looking up.

Emily approaches her slowly, sitting down cautiously next to her. "Sorry...?" Emily says not really knowing how to respond to that. She doesn't know whether that's a good or bad thing.

Alison just smiles to herself. "I suppose some part of me was hoping that you were." She says honestly.

Emily's heart leaps into her throat at her words. "I'm sorry to just invade you group like this...honestly I had idea that you were going to be here. I know this violates my deal of giving you space." She says sheepishly, wringing her fingers together. Something she hasn't done since her freshman year of high school. It was always her worst habit to do when she was nervous.

Alison gives a watery smile as she shrugs in indifference. "If I'm being honest I guess I was a bit jealous watching Caleb hover around you like that. It's obvious you two have met before even if he didn't announce it like Noel did." She says observantly.

Emily smirks. "You were jealous?" She asks surprised.

Alison shrugs again then looks down at her hands. "It's stupid. But I always just pictured you being just my special friend. Someone that know one knew about. So now that I have to share you with the group, I guess I just..." she lets out a small laugh. "I didn't feel like you were mine anymore." She admits, finally turning to look at Emily.

Emily considers her words for a second before she nods her head in understanding. "Well if it makes you feel better, they get the watered down version of me. You'll always have full access to all of me." Emily say nudging her. If she's being honest she feels sort of happy about Alison's confession, that means that the girl really did find their meetings special. This revelation causes Emily's heart to swell.

Alison smiles and looks down at her hands. She doesn't respond, just knowing that Emily treasures they're bond more than she does her bond with other people means a lot to her.

"So does that mean when I see you in the hallway I don't have to run like hell the other way?" Emily asks jokingly but her question has a serious undertone to it.

Alison laughs and shakes her head. "No. Now you can wave hello...but you might still have to run like hell the other way." She adds jokingly, before resting her head on Emily's shoulder.

Emily smiles down at her, feeling more content right now than she have all day. "Can I ask you a question?" Emily asks in a soft voice. "And feel free not to answer this but...if your group is so unique and you all have your own problems that you're hiding from the public, why don't you tell them more things about yourself?" Emily asks curiously. She just doesn't understand why Alison would prefer to keep things bottled up when it's obvious she has the perfect people to use as an outlet.

Alison lets out a sigh. It's always hard to explain to people how screwed up her life really is. She doesn't have just one barrier to get over she has many, and if her parents were to find out that she was leaking family secrets and a potential risk to ending their family legacy...well lets just say they'd have no problem taking out one of their own. They've done it before. "Last year, Ben and Paige were in a heated argument during swim practice, and she outed him to the entire team, rumors spread and by lunch time the entire school knew he was gay. We know that Paige didn't mean it and she was just having a bad reaction to one of her hormonal pills...she was in fit of rage and it was an accident, but she outed him. His life was hell for a year. I mean we're still friends now but at the time it put a rift between the group. But not only that, it let me know that secrets get out, even if it's a mistake...and that's a mistake I can't afford to take..." Alison says honestly.

"But you could with me?" Emily asks. She's in awe at the gangs ability to forgive Paige even if it wasn't in her control not to out him, it's still horrible to think about someone doing that to another person especially if they're your friend.

Alison considers the question. For some reason, since the beginning of meeting Emily two days ago she's felt the connection of friendship between her and the girl. And it may have to do with the fact that the girl refused to leave her alone, and even as she was fading into unconsciousness that night she admitted that she would have went over the bridge after the blond. That means something to her. That just like she, Emily's willing to die for her secrets, therefor she's trustable more so than anyone else.

"You're different Em...you just are." Alison says as honestly as she can without revealing to much.

Emily smiles. "I feel really special now Alison." She jokes to lighten the mood.

"Are we on first name bases now? Your calling me Alison instead of Lauren." Alison asks with a smile.

"Well you were introduced to me as Alison. It'd be pretty bad if I called you Lauren. Besides I won't call you Lauren unless we're sitting on that bridge, but you've made it perfectly clear that right now you don't want that. So I'll just settle for the mundane version of you." Emily says with a shrug.

Alison laughs airily. "Okay. I can handle that." She says hugging Emily's bicep. She lets out a shiver from the chill of the lake.

Emily gently moved Alison off of her, and ignores her questioning look as she takes off her jacket. She drapes it over Alison's shoulder before pulling her into her side and leaning back so they're both staring up at the stars.

Alison lets out a content sigh.

"So what's the deal with you and Noel?" Emily asks curiously. She's not jealous...well by much but she did take note in how close the two seemed.

"Noel is like the brother I always wanted...he just doesn't see it that way. He loves me, and at one point in time I liked him too, but my dad said I was too good for him and that was the end of that. But that doesn't stop him from trying still." Alison says with a strained voice. "I wish he'd just give up. He's only going to get hurt in the end." She adds sadly.

Emily doesn't respond at first. "What about Paige...does she like him or something?" She asks, thinking about how jealous and clingy Paige was acting.

Alison laughs. "No. They're cousins. She's just really protective of him because he was protective of her when she first transitioned. She had came from another town and had already had the surgery so no body knew who she was before. Noel makes sure it stays that way." She explains.

"Oh..." Emily says somewhat disappointed. She was really hoping Paige and Noel could end up together so he would back off of Alison. But she's not sure why she had those thoughts. "So what does this mean for us...can we be friends now?" Emily asks almost shyly.

Alison considers her words for a moment. Then looks up at Emily with a smile. "I'd love that." She says honestly. She's just happy she doesn't have to hide her friendship with tan girl. It killed her to much to do so.

Emily smiles and stares up at the stars.

"I always wondered if there was something else out there...and not the just Aliens but maybe another universe parallel to ours. Like the stars are just different universes with the same people in them just different realities. Like when we step outside of this world we walk straight into another one, where everything that's bad in this world doesn't exists in that one. And maybe when the astronauts go exploring the universe trying to find unimaginable things, they discover those wonderful places, but when they return back to this world their memory of the other place is gone, replaced with thoughts of galaxy's and milky ways that don't really exist. Because they're not suppose to know those places exist." Alison theorizes.

Emily takes a deep breath. "What would be different in that world for you?" She asks curiously.

"I would have my sister and it'd just be me and her, my parents wouldn't exist and I'd live with my grandparents. They'd be my parents. Never aging and just living with us forever. Away from this town, maybe in Paris." Alison says with a wistful smile.

Emily doesn't respond. She's to busy thinking about how this Alison reminds her to much of the Alison she knows on the bridge, the one that wishes for a better life and doesn't toss her head back with laughter and smile at the jokes being said. It makes her sad to think she doesn't cause Alison happiness like the rest of her friends, just thoughts of a better left.

"I'd want my parents to get a divorce." Emily says. "They'd live their lives separately from each other, that way they wouldn't cause each other anymore misery."

Alison frowns at Emily's vision of a better life. She's supposed to envision her parents living happily ever after not separating them. But Alison doesn't say anything, because she'd never rain on someone's parade.

The two continue to stare up at the stars, until slumber takes over them.

"Emily wake up...we have to get out of here before the beach patrol get here." Emily hears Aria say as she shakes her awake. Emily lifts up to find her jacket gently laid across her, and her arms void of a blond. Alison must have gotten up already.

"Where Alison?" Emily asks groggily.

"She left. I don't know when but..." Aria trails off not know what else to add.

Emily just nods her head understandingly, but secretly she's disappointed that she didn't get to see the blond in the daylight. When she lifts her hand to wipe the sleep from her eyes she notices a piece of crumpled up paper in her hand. She opens it, and it reveals the drawing of a bridge.

But not just any bridge. The old abandoned bridge. On the bottom of it the numbers ' _midnight?'_ Was written in fancy cursive.

Emily smiles to herself.

Midnight it is then.

 **Sorry for grammatical errors, but please read and review**


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